http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/amazing-audio-things-and-pictures-no.html

For those of you who missed it, here's the NPR "Open Mike" piece I did on audiobooks... You can listen to it here, or download it, or email it...





...

I was reading the book "Coraline". I finished then told my parents about it. I was wondering if this book has any religouiseness to it. I tried, but only found what you've writen so i'm hoping you can tell. Just curiose

I don't think so. Although I think people bring religious points of view to books, and read them from those perspectives.

You sounded good on NPR this morning, so good you need your own radio show.

If I sound good, it's because Maeve McGoran, my producer, and Barry Gordemer, the editor, did such a sterling job. Finding the time to make this, to do the interviews and put it all together, took months. I'd love to do more radio, for NPR or for Radio Four in the UK, but I think it will always be little one-off projects. But I loved doing it.

Would it be cheating to copy and paste exactly what I said LAST November 30? :)

Here we are, November 30th, and I posted every day in November. Yeah, turns out, I really don't have that much to post about. THAT'S why I don't post every day, in general. But hopefully this has helped me get over my hesitancy about posting things that I don't think people will find interesting or compelling. Because anyone who's still reading after 30 days of .. all that crap I posted, well, I guess you're really starved for entertainment, and will read (or ignore) whatever tripe I might put out there. :)

Thanks for still reading, and happy NoMoNaBloPoMo!

Yeah, I suppose it would.

Last year after November, I pretty much stopped posting regularly again, other than race reports. So I don't have high hopes of maintaining my momentum this year either. But I'll say I'm going to try. I may stop cross-posting to facebook, just because I'm not sure many people read my stuff as notes there.

But we'll always have race reports, and NEXT November!

No, really. Really. I'm gonna try and post more. Because my mom tells me she loves to read my blog.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/bit-sad-but-it-ends-with-toast.html

I went to Boston and spent Thanksgiving with Amanda and her family. It was wonderful. I spent any spare moments reading comics for a book I am guest editing next year. (This is a photo of us on the pavement outside her house.)Now I'm home. Typing a blog entry, listening to TV Smith's Live CD.

Well, the thought that someone might say, "Hey, you never posted the After pictures of your sewing room" encouraged me to actually clean up said sewing room. Yay! I got started last weekend, then I had no real plans other than running and eating during my 4 day weekend, so I finished it up finally today.

I'm not completely done. There's still a few things I need to find homes for and some small cleanup to do, but it's a billion times better than it was before.

Behold:



Compare to before.

There's still some clutter on the shelves, but there was nothing ELSE I wanted to put there right now, so I let some random candleholders live there. Also, yes, a picture of John Denver and one of Nixon. And a billion tons of D&D and Gurps stuff. And a giant thing of pennies.



Compare to before.

I could potentially sew again! Now to find THAT motivation. But at least if I find it, the sewing machine is accessible. I need to figure out if I want to take the race numbers down or not. Those are all the first events I ever did. Maybe I'll take those down and only put up marathon and Ironman bibs. Or just take them all down. On the right side of the desk is a huge stack of other bibs.



Compare to before.

This probably has the least visible change. I made a bunch of shoeboxes for the tons of stuff we had lying around randomly, up on top of the shelves. I need to throw out more stuff from the cubes, probably. There's just a lot of crap in there. And figure out what to do with the billion bags we have. Swimming stuff, tri bags, etc. Maybe a coat rack of some sort. Rubber chicken is still in there.



Compare to before.

I realize that I COULD have just shoved everything in the closet and closed it and pretended it was all clean, but.. I didn't. It's much tidier in there. A lot of the closet stuff is waiting for Matt to have time to put it in the attic. Old pictures and school stuff, and all the costumes.

Overall, I'm very pleased. I've gone in there randomly about 10 times today just to look and smile. I'm really hoping not to let it get that bad again. I'm not naturally a clean and tidy person, but that was just... bad.

Date: 11/29/2009
Time: 7:25am
Duration: 0:49:58
Location: Neighborhood loop

Sport: Running
Workout: 5 mile easy run
Distance: 5.02 miles

Weather: Warm and humid, mid 60s, 90% humidity
People: Alone

Comments:
Matt was meeting Jim to run at 7:30, so I wanted to do my run at roughly the same time so we could go to breakfast afterwards and Matt wouldn't have to wait for me. It was warm. And humid. And my hamstring wasn't any better. And my calves were tiiiiight at first.

But my calves loosened up slowly and there were lots of deer out and I got through it. Hamstring never really loosened up, but there aren't many hills after the first 1.5 miles or so, so I was able to baby it some and be careful on curbs. I stopped my watch and walked up the last hill back up to our house, 'cause I didn't want to irritate it further.

Date: 11/28/2009
Time: 6:31am
Duration: 2:46:05
Location: NW Park area

Sport: Running
Workout: 14 mile long run + 4 miles @ MGP
Distance: 17.87 miles

Weather: Low 50s, partly sunny
People: Kris, Mike and Lori for long run, Megan for MGP

Comments:
Big jump in mileage, as we do the last push before Houston. Mentally it was tough knowing we were doing so much more distance, but we got through it. It was good weather and we had some good conversation.

Karen sent Megan back to run the MGP part with me, which is a lot of responsibility. Megan is superfast, but this is her first marathon and Karen doesn't want her to charge out of the gate and die halfway through, so she's trying to make her aim for a 3:40, and do MGP runs with me and Andi. And Andi wasn't there. So I did my best to keep us on pace. Several times I'd glance at the Garmin and suspect we were going too fast, and make her slow down. We chatted some, but mostly we were really tired from already having done 14, and my stomach wasn't feeling great. But we actually did good on the MGP part, if a little fast. I was afraid I would be waaay slow.

Goal: 8:23

Actual:
8:13
8:22
8:16
8:17

Right hamstring really, really tight, presumably from doing hills Tuesday and Thursday (at the Turkey Trot). It feels like it needs to pop or be stretched, but stretching it doesn't feel good. Very similar to what happened to my left hamstring all last year. That eventually just went away for no reason that I know of. Gonna need to get a massage or something to try to work it out, 'cause it's not comfortable.

Date: 11/26/2009
Time: 8:44am w/u
Duration: 0:21:46 w/u, 0:40:59 TT, 0:07:49 c/d
Location: Waterloo Park area

Sport: Running
Workout: 2mi w/u, 5 mile Turkey Trot, 1mi c/d
Distance: 8.03 miles

Weather: Beautiful, mid 50s and sunny
People: Lori for the w/u, alone for the race and c/d

Comments:
Race report here.

Date: 11/24/2009
Time: 5:49pm
Duration: 1:07:56
Location: Anderson HS track + neighborhood

Sport: Running
Workout: 1mi w/u, 4mi hills @ MGP, 1mi straights and curves, 1mi c/d
Distance: 7.21 miles

Weather: Chilly, pleasant
People: Various, mostly Andi and Megan

Comments:
Tough workout. Instead of letting us get an idea again of what MGP felt like in general, Karen threw us into hard hills to find it. And we didn't, really. But we were strong on the hills, at least. The last hill mile, we were way off pace. It was kinda reassuring that even Megan was panting up the last hill, though.

Straights and curves was maybe a little half-hearted, but we were tired.

My right hamstring was a little tight after the hills.

Sometimes I'm fairly convinced I grew up in the Twilight Zone. There's a fair number of things that my sister and I reference that.. we seem to be the only ones that knew about it. Thanks to the wonder of the Internet, we at least have been able to confirm that we didn't make these things up entirely, and that others out there also saw them, but it's so very rare to find someone directly in our friend groups who've heard of them. Some are odder/rarer than others, but here's a bit of the list:

- Mickey and the Beanstalk: I suspect other people have seen this, but damned if people don't look at me and Laura like we're insane whenever we break into the "pancakes piled up 'til they reach the sky" song, as heard shortly into this video. Maybe they're just looking at us weird because we randomly burst into song.

- A whole host of songs that came from elementary school.
The Hats off song, which we did in a school recital. (I have a picture I'll have to scan of all us on stage with our hats.)
The Clyde the Computer song, possibly from the same assembly. I think that was a completely original one, and was actually fairly clever, with bite/byte references (and perhaps dated a bit with "pretty green readout screen" references.).
The North Pole Goes Rock and Roll. "You've got the blahs, oh Mrs. Claus."
Singing "H-A-double-L-O-double-U-double-E-N spells Halloween" to the tune of Danse Macabre.

- Professor Wormbog's Gloomy Kerploppus, a fantastic scratch and sniff book that Sarah and I adored.

- Er.. a book my mom read us with a little guy who said something "kooshlimakree". But not that, evidently, because hell if google can do anything with that. Mom, help me out here.

- Twice Upon a Time: a fantastic movie that nobody's ever seen. I quote from it heavily much to everyone's confusion. "Welcome to the Garbagery. Follow the happy feet." "Help, help, damsel in distress, currently on fire!" "They tapdance not neither do they fart." Enjoy! (Oh, man, watching that again makes me laugh. Maybe you had to be there, though.)

- Weird, anime Jack and the Beanstalk. Pointy-haired girls singing on floating clouds and animatronic evil stepmother lady who gets squished and is just gears and parts. Laura and I were pretty sure we totally made this movie up, but we can sing every song from it. Especially this one and this one. That last one should give you an idea how weird it was.

And there's some insight into.. why my sister and I are who we are. :)

Training like I do is a labor of love. I know a lot of people think, "Why bother?" I'm obviously not going to Win. Maybe I can eventually win my age group if it's a small event and not many of the fast folks turn up. But I'm certainly no kind of competitive. So it's love of what I'm doing alone that drives me to keep going. To devote my Tuesday nights to run workouts. To get up at or before 5am on Wednesdays and Thursdays to run (or, in other times of the year, swim). And most notably to get up early both Saturday and Sunday to run. As a result, I almost never sleep in past 6am on any day anymore. (I have to get up at 6am anyway to feed the animals.. this time of year, though, I CAN sometimes go back to bed for a while after the feedings on Sundays, and run a little later in the day, if the weather is cool enough.)

So I actually look forward to the Friday after Thanksgiving, as a day I can sleep in. Even if I sleep in some on Sunday, I can't really sleep well, because I know that I need to eventually get up and run, and if I wait too long, I'll be hungry, and then I'll have to eat, and then wait until that settles before I can run. So my sleep is either nonexistent or iffy on sleep-in Sundays. But today? I could just sleep in. No run. Fed the pets at 6am (thanks, body, for waking up no matter what, with no alarm, to feed the pets), then back to bed. Nothing looming over my head, making me unable to sleep. No chores or duties vying for my attention. Just sleep. The pets even settled back in and didn't pester. It was beautiful. I didn't get out of bed until after 10am.

And then Matt made me go out shopping on Black Friday. I hate shopping and I hate crowds of insane shoppers, and so I always want to hole up in the house on these kinds of days, but somehow Matt, who never wants to go shopping, invariably needs SOMEthing vitally on Black Friday. I think he does it just to torture me.

But it was still a fantastic day. Slept late. Lunch with the guy. We lived through shopping. Tidied up the house. Made lots of good progress on the sewing room cleanup. And now settling in for dinner before an 18 mile run tomorrow morning.

Thanksgiving itself is too crazy with plans and people and Trots and whatnot. This is the day I can truly reflect on how thankful I am for everything that's so fantastic in my life.

(And as a bonus, I still have an entire weekend left ahead of me!)

I didn't really plan on doing the Turkey Trot this year. Karen had implied she wasn't going to advise we run it, what with being right after San Antonio and right before a long and hard Saturday run, and I was a little sad because I've done it every year since 2004. Then she said as long as we didn't race it, we could run it as our Thursday run, with a warmup and a cooldown, so I signed up. And as she recommended, to make sure we didn't let ego step in, I signed up untimed, to discourage me from racing it. Yay, another long-sleeved white Turkey Trot shirt!

Met up with a couple of the Team (+Matt) to do our 2 mile warmup, then we all went our separate ways before the race. I needed a portapotty, but hadn't left myself with enough time, so I figured.. 5 miles.. I can deal with it for 5 miles. Since I wasn't racing, I decided to start farther back than I normally would, and got into the chute just behind the 9-10 minute mile sign. With a lot of dogs and strollers and people who looked an awful lot like they intended to walk. I figured I'd regret it, but .. eh.

Gun went off, very, very slowly walked to the start line, then started to run right before the line. And sure enough, my first mile was spent dodging and weaving and ducking and darting. Shoulda started further up. I mean, I wasn't racing, but I still wanted to run my pace. Anyway, that spread out after a mile, and it was fine.

Karen said no racing, but if we wanted to do progressive pace, we could. She said start at half marathon goal pace (HMGP) + 1 minute, then take off 15 seconds each mile, ending at HMGP. For me that would mean roughly:
9:00
8:45
8:30
8:15
8:00

I figured if I felt good, I'd aim for that. But when I started running and was frustrated from the dodging and weaving, I decided to say "screw my watch" and run purely on perceived effort and how I was feeling. So I never checked my pace or tried to race anyone or do anything other than just run and feel good. I did hit the splits on my watch, though, for my records. And my first mile was an 8:59, which, hey, was what Karen said to do. And then.. my second mile was an 8:15. Oops. But the weather was picture perfect, the day was beautiful and running just felt effortless. Even with the hills.

And I just kept getting faster. At one point I saw Lori just in front of me, so I ran to catch her. Right then, Karen passed me, and I picked it up a little to chat with her for a few seconds until she flew off. Then I mentioned to a girl that I'd been leapfrogging with her for a mile or so, and we chatted for a while. I told her about the hill at the end. She just moved here from Houston, and wasn't too fond of our hills. Then I passed Lindy and chatted briefly with her. And then before I knew it, it was the turn for the final nasty hill (thanks, Steph, for cheering me up it!), then a downhill to the finish line, with Matt and Joleen cheering crazily for me. Matt told me to kick it in, I yelled back that I wasn't racing. As I crossed the finish line, I stopped my watch and saw my last mile was a 7:43. Oops. I didn't INTEND to be racing.

Actual splits:
8:59
8:15
8:13
7:45
7:43

Total: 0:40:59 (8:10/mile)

Granted, this was much shorter than the San Antonio half, but it's amazing how different two runs can be. The weather was better, I just felt better right from the start line, and a pace that felt effortless at the end of the Turkey Trot was unachievable during any mile in SA. Runs like today are what make running worth it. And it seems appropriate that I would have such a great run on Thanksgiving.

Dutifully did my 1 mile cooldown, then milled about chatting with so many people I knew, and drank some of Matt's mimosa at the Texas Iron parking garage roof party.

Too bad I didn't run timed! This was my second fastest Turkey Trot, though the course last year was short, so it may actually be my fastest. Maybe I just go faster when I remove all the pressure from myself, because I'm not racing. :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Thank you for.. being you.

Noting this here right now so that I can remember it. Total revelation.

1. Cook a batch of eggs per the Momofuku poached egg recipe (which is not unlike the 65-degree egg that I somehow missed when it first made its way 'round the internets, though the Momofuku recipe does run a little cooler and creates a softer, runnier yolk).

2. When ready to eat, melt some butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat.

3. While the butter is melting, crack open one of your eggs, drain off the runniest bits. When the butter in the skillet has stopped sizzling and foaming, drop in the egg and fry it for about 45 seconds. Flip, fry for another 45 seconds.

4. Dump the egg from the skillet onto a plate. Be sure to pour the butter from the skillet on top -- the butter by now should be lightly browned and nutty.

5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and eat. Be sure you have something to mop up the yolk and the browned butter, because you'll really, really want it.

Whew. Done with everything except the stuff that has to be done tomorrow (rosemary fan rolls from scratch and bacon-sauteed green beans). Here's my reflections on tonight's cooking:

- Came home from work and my house was all clean. 5 minutes later, the kitchen was filthy again. I'm not a clean cook.
- I think I made some sort of bechamel sauce, but I don't think I did it well. I think too much liquid ended up cooking off, so it was still tasty, but didn't cover quite the surface area it was supposed to.
- It's amazing how so much swiss chard can cook down to so little final product.
- It's harder to mash potatoes with a potato masher than with a hand blender thingy.
- The contrast between the inside skin of a sweet potato and the potato itself is beautiful.
- Even with a ton of past evidence that my cooking goes much more smoothly if I actually.. prepare all the ingredients ahead of time, somewhere that never happens for me, and I end up juggling too many things that all need to happen at once and it's a either a disaster or very nearly so.
- There's no such thing as too much gruyere.
- Matt needs to get off his high horse with his, "Did you just eat butter?" Yes, some got stuck to my finger when I was cutting off a tablespoon of butter, and I had nothing to wipe it on, so I ate it. You may judge me when you're not licking mashed potatoes directly off the masher, likely ingesting far more butter in the process than I did.
- Mmm. Butter.

I had no time to post when I felt okay earlier today. And now that I have a second to sit down, I feel like crap, and there's nothing I'd rather do than go crawl under the covers and go to bed, leaving myself a ton of stuff to do tomorrow morning before going to work.. so that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Days like this are why posting every day is a bad idea.

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by this week, so I decided to write down all the things I needed to do so that I didn't forget anything, and could plan out when to do what. And I think that just made me MORE overwhelmed. But I brought it on myself, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Ask me if I still feel that way Thursday around 1pm.

Monday night:
Make dinner
Make banana muffins
(Maybe make applecake?)
Get kitchen into more usable state
Do laundry
Tidy house in preparation for cleaningfolks on Wednesday

Tuesday:
Work all day
Run home from bus stop to be home when my ride gets there to take me to my run workout
1 mile warmup, 4 hilly miles at marathon goal pace, 1 mile straights and curves, 1 mile cooldown
Come home, shower
While waiting for Matt to bring home dinner, prep swiss chard
Make applecake if I ran out of time to make it Monday night
Go to bed as early as possible, because..

Wednesday:
Wake up at 4:30am to get in 5 mile run before work
Work all day
Come home and make mashed potatoes and swiss chard and sweet potato gratin
Make dinner
Get out all dishes and linens and whatnot for tablesetting

Thursday:
Wake up at ?am and make roll starter, so it can rise for a few hours
Prep green beans and chop onions
Go do Turkey Trot at 9:30am
Be social for a very brief time afterwards
Come home, shower
Finish rolls
Make green beans
Bake gratin and mashed potatoes
Set table
Coordinate rest of meal arriving around 12:30
At some point hopefully, eat
Collapse

Date: 11/22/2009
Time: 9:05am
Duration: 0:50:14
Location: Neighborhood loop

Sport: Running
Workout: 5 mile recovery run
Distance: 5.03 miles

Weather: Low 50s, sunny
People: Alone

Comments:
I knew the weather would be cool, so I slept in as long as my body would let me. Once I got up, I puttered about for a while, then finally got my butt out the door. The weather was just fantastic, and running felt good. One of those days where running just feels Right. It wasn't Fast, but relatively effortless. Exchanged a low-five (all my fives are low, technically) with RF who was running the opposite direction.

Date: 11/21/2009
Time: 7:00am
Duration: 1:33:14
Location: Jollyville Park and Ride cow area

Sport: Running
Workout: 10 mile long run
Distance: 9.92 miles

Weather: Mid 50s, drizzly to light rainy
People: Andi, Mike, Brian, Kris, Laura-Kate and Belle

Comments:
The end of our recovery week, before we start back up the last push to Houston. It was a bit cold and wet, but it felt good. We ended up pushing the pace more than we normally do, which is something we need to do on the rest of our long runs up to Houston, especially now that the weather is a bit cooler.

Robyn came through town very briefly on Thursday night. Leslie called me to say Robyn was going over to her place, if we wanted to go meet over there and hang out for 45 minutes or so just to say hi. She also warned me that she was wearing a very bad outfit. I said to put her at ease, I would also wear a very bad outfit.

Oddly enough, with no planning, they were both Christmas-themed. I'm pretty sure I won, though.



I don't even think it's possible to lose with Christmas-lobster socks.

Sorry, Leslie.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/does-anyone-else-have-something-further.html

Good morning. I cannot stay long as deadlines are happening.

Cat Mihos, in association with the CBLDF, has made the most beautiful print of Jim Lee's glorious pencil-art to accompany my poem "100 Words". It'll be limited to 750 numbered prints, and is lettered by Todd Klein. (Click on it in order to actually see it at readable size.) She decided that the first 24 hours it was on sale at her neverwear.net site, it would be $35, going up to $45 the following day. I linked to it on Twitter and... crashed the site. (Or possibly, crashed the shopping cart. I'm not sure. Different reports from people who couldn't get in.)

So Cat is extending the sale (at http://www.neverwear.net/store/) until the end of Monday, when she gets home from her trip out here, to apologise to people who had problems, and to allow people to get to it. You can read all about it (and see lots of Cat's candid snaps, including one of me in a 20 foot long Tom Baker style Doctor Who scarf I was sent by a reader who knits and likes Doctor Who and thought I needed one) over at http://kittysneverwear.blogspot.com

And on the subject of photos, KImberly Butler is out at the house right now to shoot photos of me, with her daughter Caitlin as a camera assistant. She is a remarkable photographer (http://www.kimberlybutler.com is her website). She's here because I am the Honorary Chair of National Library Week next year (details at this ALA website).

I go. Maddy's violin recital, a short story and an introduction are waiting. Zoom.

It seems many of the Big Bloggers post holiday gift guides, recommending products they like (or are schilling for, if you're jaded). I thought, "I know some people who do stuff.. I could do the world's shortest and least-comprehensive holiday gift guide ever!" The lame-assness refers to my post, not to the recommendations contained herein. These are all people I know well and like and trust, as far as creativeness and quality go. My name is Amy Bush, and I endorse these products and/or services. (I have not asked their permission to schill for them and so expect to receive no compensation, but I will not refuse any if they want to buy me cookies.) (Or if they want me to take their names out of my lame-ass holiday gift guide, I'm willing to do that, too!)

Jewelry

Stick Lizard Designs



Laura sells her jewelry through etsy, and also does commissions if have an idea or want something a little different from what she's got up there. Her pieces (many of which can be seen here) are amazing and intricate. And I would think that even if she weren't my sister!

Photography

AzulOx Photography



Josh is a fantastic photographer and does a great job of putting you at ease (for those of us who haaaaate having our picture taken). He'll work with you on a location you're comfortable with and has all sorts of lenses and lights and whatever things photographers have that make pictures look amazing. Holiday card pictures, event photos, engagement or baby pictures.. check out his portfolio and drop him a line.

Personal training

PLBT Fitness

Pam Tobias, CI-CPT


A new year is almost upon us. Is one of your resolutions to take control of your life and your fitness? Pam can help you do that. She's a mobile personal trainer, and she'll come to you and bring her arsenal of equipment and toys to help develop a fitness program that works for you. She's an incredibly caring person who believes that fitness can be fun and wants to show others that, as well. So if you want to improve your fitness, or give the gift of increased fitness to someone else this holiday season, drop Pam an email.

Baby hats

Little Baby Bat



Summer makes unique hats and hair pins for babies and adults, in vibrant colors and characters. Her hats are adorable and a great gift for folks with babies who want to stand out in a crowd.

Cakes/cookies/desserts

Sweet Stirrings



Laura-Kate designs and bakes custom cakes, cookies and desserts. As her image gallery shows, her skills are already impressive, but she's now going to pastry school to hone those skills even further. I can attest to the fact that her products are both delicious and beautiful.

----------

Okay, I'm tired and that took way more effort than I anticipated, digging up links and pictures. :)

I have many other talented and creative friends, and they should feel free to advertise their products or services here. I know I've barely begun my Christmas shopping, and I'll take all the suggestions I can get.

I dunno if my recommendations will get business for any of these people, but I figured if anyone's looking for any of these things, or ideas for gifts, I'd throw them out there. Happy shopping!

We periodically replace large chunks of machines at work with new chunks of machines. When we do that, we have to come up with names for the new machines. I imagine most large, corporate places name their machines something generic and formulaic (windows-pc-01, etc), but we pick large groups of names along some theme and assign names from there. Coming up with those name spaces is fun, but a lot of pressure, because you know you have to live with those names for several years before those computers age out. In the past, we've had hats, snakes, whiskeys, Austin bars, muses, Simpsons characters and words pertaining to welding. Sometimes one of the most fun things about the names is trying to figure out WHAT the theme is.

I've recently been involved in the name-choosing for 4 different sets of machines. First set, obvious for me, but it made me happy to pick them. Second set, I had to look many of these up, but they make me giggle every time I see a reboot notice on one of them. Third set, pretty obscure, but our third round of these names. Fourth set.. either you get it or you don't.

( Cut for long lists.. )

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/blood-blood-in-unimaginable-quantities.html

I'm happy to say that I've not won any more awards in the last 24 hours, or done anything particularly noteworthy. I've walked the dog. Written things. Listened to things on headphones. Eaten a bit. (I've lost weight in the last year. I'm about twenty pounds lighter than I was this time last year, without having done much more than eating smaller portions and a lot more sensibly. This makes me happy.) I spiced three different chilis (the Hot, the Mild and the Vegetarian) for the weekend visitors. (Lorraine, my assistant, traditionally makes the chili, and I come in at the end and spice them. Thus it has always been.) During any down moments I've read comics, for a project I don't know if I can talk about yet. Some astonishingly good ones, some not so good.

Date: 11/19/2009
Time: 5:14am
Duration: 0:56:16
Location: Home to HEB loop to home

Sport: Running
Workout: 6 mile easy run
Distance: 6.09 miles

Weather: Mid to high 40s
People: Alone, then Mike and Kirsten, then Karen, then alone

Comments:
Since it was a shorter run, Karen said we'd meet at 5:30 instead of 5:15. I decided my odds of getting to work on time were better if I started earlier, so I ran from home to HEB to meet the group, then ran one loop with them, then ran back home.

Most folks were either not running or running in the evening, so it was just me and Mike from the subteam. Karen, James and Trevor were running really slow at first, so we all kind of stuck together, and Kirsten ran with Mike and I just behind them. Which meant a lot of the time, I was pushing a bit to stay up with people, but the weather was nice and cool, and it actually felt good. Once we got back to the water, everyone took off for their second loop, and Karen ran about half a mile back toward my home with me.

When I got back home, I noticed my time was pretty fast for an easy 6 mile run. Checking my splits, one of the middle miles was an 8:43, so.. yeah, a bit fast for an easy run. But again, it felt so good to feel good, after SA.

Date: 11/17/2009
Time: 5:47pm
Duration: 0:26:51
Location: Anderson HS area

Sport: Running
Workout: 10min w/u run, group core, 20min ez run, group stretch
Distance: 2.44 miles

Weather: Upper 50s
People: Karen's Team

Comments:
Nice easy recovery workout after San Antonio. The running actually felt fine, though we certainly went very slow and easy, and the stretching felt great. Afterwards we had brownies and cupcakes for Karen's birthday.