Thursday means it's almost Friday

Nothing big, just some random thoughts while I wait for 20 minute LC runs...

Samosas make me really happy.  I'd say the most redeeming thing about BFU are the delicious samosas at the cafe on the same floor as my lab.  Considering that more days than not I desperately want a glass (or three) of wine when I get home from BFU, I'm very grateful for the samosas.  And the delightful Indian man who staffs the cafe, who's always excited when anybody gets the samosas.  Today when he saw my samosas and coke zero he told me how as a kid growing up they always had samosas and coke at the movie theater instead of popcorn and coke!

I ran 5 miles this morning!  Not gonna lie, pretty proud of myself.  There's a 5 mile road race in about a month that Boyfriend has done before that I plan to join him for this year.  It's still irritatingly cold out more often than not, so I haven't run outside much in several months.  Tuesday it was nice and still light out when I got home from work, so I ran a 3.9 mile route from home and survived, so this morning I tried 5 at the gym.  One weird/annoying thing is the treadmills at the Y cut you off after 30 minutes.  So I either have to restart the treadmill or start running 6 minute miles.  Which is pretty much never going to happen.

I talked Boyfriend into doing this 6-pack March workout plan, and it is so. much. harder. when you do it after running 5 miles.  It's not easy fully rested either, but definitely way easier.  Even though the workout keeps increasing, I can tell that I'm getting better.  I had never in my life even considered doing the quantities of sit-ups or push-ups, or that long of a plank.  I'm pretty sure the last day will kill me, but it does seem to be accomplishing something...

In other workout related news, I'm only 1 lb above the lowest weight I hit last year!  Which means I'm only about 3 lbs away from my ultimate goal weight, but already at a point I'd be ok with long term.  Which is the hard part.  Making it long term.  Bonus, and maybe Boyfriend would disagree, but I think I've really been pretty good at the not-complaining about my weight in the meantime goal.

My alma mater is in the NCAA tournament!  Both of them actually.  My undergrad played (and won!) this afternoon and the gradual school alma mater plays tonight.  I generally like March Madness - though I'm not nearly as obsessed as some people - but it does irritate me that Big Bang Theory won't be on for a while! >:/

Last weekend I bought a bottle of wine because the previous week, more nights that not I'd really wanted a glass (or three) of wine after working at BFU.  Go figure, Monday and Tuesday this week were fine, but yesterday, holy cow.  I was ready for the whole bottle.  But then I got an email from Old Navy informing me that dresses were on sale...so I went shopping instead... And now I have quite the collection of casual summer dresses.  If only it would be warm!

Speaking of warm, I am so, so tired of winter.  It hasn't been a particularly bad winter, but after 5 years in the desert, 4 months of perpetual cold, rain, and bitter winds is more than enough!  I'm wearing a heavy sweater today (acquired on clearance last night :P ), and wore my winter coat, scarf, and gloves to come down to BFU today.  Daffodils have started to appear, but it's still way too cold to consider it spring...

Ok, my initial runs are done, a worklist is queued up for the night, so I'm out.  Gotta get home in time for Glee even if there's no Big Bang to watch beforehand... Goodnight!

Colorado

I miss the mountains.  And big sky.  A lot.  I spent last week in Denver for a software training course for work, and found a little time over the weekend to have some fun.  I certainly had my share of beer throughout the week - I didn't have an absurd amount, but not really being a beer person it was a lot for me.  But hey, Denver would be the place to sample a lot of beer.

Saturday a local coworker and I went to tour the Celestial Seasonings factory.  It was actually really interesting and entertaining.  The tour and all the samples you want are free.  It's fascinating to see all the ingredients for different sorts of teas, and the peppermint room.  Oh my goodness.  Everything I saw online before going referred to the knock-you-off-your feet smell of the peppermint room.  Peppermint has such a strong smell that it's in it's own separate room.  There's so much menthol in the air that your eyes burn and the smell sticks with you well after you've left the peppermint room.  It was nuts.  Also funny, it's located on Sleepytime Lane.

Saturday night the same coworker invited me to dinner at his parents' - his parents live up in the mountains, about and hour outside of Denver.  I'd call it up in the mountains, considering the house is at 9000 feet elevation at the end of an unpaved road that in winter is only climbable with four-wheel drive, and even then only with some luck.  After a week of eating out, the home-cooked meal was very appreciated.  And the views from their deck at 9000 feet were spectacular.

Besides my friends, the mountains and big sky are what I miss most from Tucson.  The sky on the east coast on a perfectly clear, sunny day, even outside of the city, still doesn't compare to the bigness and awesomeness of a cloudy sky out west.  If I ever had the opportunity to move to Colorado, I'd be hard pressed to turn it down.

DC

Boyfriend and I spent the weekend after Valentine's Day in DC - and holy cow is that a beautiful city.  I loved it.  I'm sure it's got it's shady parts, but the area around the capitol is just beautiful.  It's laid out on a grid (yay logic!), it's clean, and the streets are wide, making it seem so much more open and less closed in.  I'd never been to DC before, and I can't wait to go back.  And I'm sorry these photos are mostly pretty mediocre.  I only had my iPhone.

I've mentioned before that Little Sister has a thing for Lincoln, and sure enough she flipped shit when I told sent her a photo of me in front of this:

I also sent Little Sister this picture of a Trisarahtops, which is what Dad called her for the brief period when she had three teeth, after the brief period when she had two teeth during which he called her Disarahtops... Apparently she doesn't remember the Disarahtops phase, because her reply was, "A DIsarahtops??? Omg!!! Two of me??! What could be better!!!!"

February Hike

We've kept up this New Year's resolution for two months!  Woohoo!  Sunday we went to Rocks State Park in Maryland and hiked around a bit.  It's not a very big park - we hiked nearly all the trail they had and probably came in a little over 3 miles, maybe 4 tops.  There's a ridge line in the middle of the park, with trails around it and up to it.  The park had some of the more ridiculous signs I've seen.  Fun fact, part of Tuck Everlasting was filmed in the park.

Multi purpose

A twist tie actually doesn't make a bad hair tie in a pinch...

Poor Camera

My poor camera had to take a trip to the camera hospital last night.  Yesterday afternoon I took my camera out of my laptop bag to discover that the flash wouldn't stay down anymore.  Meaning the camera then wanted to take every photo with the flash.  No bueno.  Fortunately my camera is still under warranty, so fixing it is free, and both the camera body and lens will be cleaned while it's out.  After nearly 3 years in the desert dust it could definitely use a good cleaning.  They quoted me 2 weeks...but a couple years ago when I took a lens in to be cleaned (just the lens, and nothing was broken), and that took an entire month.  So I'm not too optimistic.  But I'd reeeeeeally love to have my camera back before I head to Denver and Santa Clara at the end of the month.  Until my baby comes back, iPhone it is...

NYC

Friday I went to NYC for a quick one day conference at the New York Academy of Sciences, which happens to be located on the 40th floor of 7 World Trade Center.  The views weren't shabby to say the least.  I walked around the freezing cold and absurd wind on Thursday night hoping to take photos, but it was so windy that I literally couldn't stand still enough to take a non-blurry photo.  Even when I set the camera down the wind blew the camera blurring those photos, too.  I'd been to NYC once before, though very briefly, and more around the midtown Manhattan area, not downtown around the financial district.  I'd never want to live here, but it's fascinating how this massive structure with millions of people in a teeny tiny space works.