Second quilt

Finally! Finalmente!

I'm done. I finished! I made my second quilt. Here are some process pictures.

I made my mistakes and learned from them, so now I know better! Maribel's baby, Ismael, was born on Monday, and he and Maribel went home from the hospital today. I think we're visiting tomorrow, so I got this thing done just in time. It's how I work best.

Speaking of crafty - I just found this seller on etsy, and I just love love love her hats:

 Check out her stuff here. 

I'm off to make Christmas gifts!

Mile Repeats

Run: 5.85 mi/52:39

It's a good thing I wrote those mile and half mile points last night - because in my haste and sleepiness this morning I grabbed the wrong paper. I didn't realize it until about mile 3 because I didn't need to look at the paper. Then i looked down a little white paper that was blank. And I realized that it was a tiny paper airplane I had confiscated from a student last week. So I didn't make 6 miles, but close enough.

My mile repeats were supposed to be at 8:20. For all of you super jetpack runners, yes, that is fast for me. That fast means that I have to concentrate on my breathing, I have to make sure I don't trip over myself, and I'm super tired when the mile is over. The first mile was 8:26 (pretty good for not having a Garmin or knowing what the pace feels like). The second mile was 9:00 (obviously I was tired), but the third was back at 8:25!! I was proud of that. My half-marathon pace is supposed to be 9:09. Wooo boy. We'll see how THAT goes. But, I'll admit that when I ran my warm up mile this morning, I was at 9:30 and I felt absolutely fine and slow and normal. That's an improvement.

No, ElktonRunner, I don't use SmartCoach, and I'm not going to change my plan right now. I still know that it will be a struggle to finish under 2:00, like I'm hoping for, so I'm going to keep at this training plan for now.

Google Earth

How lame is this? I'm sitting here on a Tuesday night, mapping out my run for tomorrow. That, in itself, is not so completely and utterly lame, but I'm writing down my route on a piece of paper. I will take the piece of paper with me tomorrow morning. I will also take a pen, with which to write down my half mile and mile times, because I will have to start my watch over and over, because I'm not so quick that early in the morning when it comes to time mathematics.

Most of the time I have a good idea of how far things are, and I can go out for a four mile run and be fine. In fact, I can even figure out a 8, 9, or 10 mile run based on the mileage I know, and knowing how long I've run. But tomorrow I'm running quick miles, half mile jogs, quick miles, half mile jog, and so on, so I need to know exactly how far a mile is, and exactly how long that half mile jog is. 

I use Google Earth, which looks like this:

And I map out my runs, and although it doesn't look exactly like this on my computer, this is a close enough example:

Does anybody else think it's creepy that you can get a satellite image of anything? I was searching for Google Earth pictures and found a Google Earth image of the castle at Disneyland. Because not only can you get an aerial view, you can get a street level view as well. Creepy all around.

Half a Heart

Run: 4mi/41:00

Oh my word, our friend Maribel is in labor and I gotta get my rear in gear and finish that baby blanket. I was putting the binding on last night, got halfway done, and realized I had been putting it on inside out. You know what? I don't care. I cannot take it out and do it over again. I will pretend it is the new style.

In other news: there are 6 more days until we leave for the States for vacation. This means in six days I will be able to go to a store for something I need, and not come home empty handed. I can think in my head "hey, I would like to buy such-and-such" and I will know that the store has it. It means I can think to myself "i would like this piece of clothing" and I will go to the store and they will have it. It means smooth freeways, heated buildings, karaoke, Powell's books, Portland rain, snow for Christmas, an indoor swimming pool (possibly), my family, my best friends, my first half-marathon, and English, English, English.

On the flip side, it also means missing my friends here, no students, no Spanish worship songs (except on CD), no sun (well hardly any), no running on dirt roads, no Lucy, none of this wonderful food, no palm trees, and no seeing familiar faces everywhere I go in town.

Over the past ten years I have learned it is very possible to have your heart torn in two, and to have each side deeply planted in two completely different places/countries/homes.

Carbs!

Run: 5 mi/49:00

Nothing exciting to share, except that on mile 1.5 Lucy found some sort of bread product while scrounging around, and kept it in her mouth until mile 4.5. Three miles! She kept that thing (hamburger bun?) in her mouth for 3 miles, not able to breath out of her mouth. She finally stopped and ate it while I did a turn around. I've only ever seen her pick up bread products. She's a carbaholic, too.

I gave her a bath. She's outside looking pathetic.

Slow and Steady?

Run: 3mi/29:49

I did this easy run today because I accidentally skipped a run on Monday, and I moved Monday's easy run to Tuesday and I moved Tuesday's easy run to today (Friday). Are you still with me? This week is a cut back week, which I guess, from all the reading I've done (on uneducated running forums) is typical in training. Tomorrow's "long" run is 5 miles, which isn't long, but then next week I'm back with a bang and a 10 mile long run. So I figured it was okay to run an easy 3 before only doing 5 easy miles tomorrow. And what in the world? I totally went out today thinking "I will run slow today, I will run slow today" and I felt slow and I felt like a turtle, and I did it in under 10min/miles. Oops. "Slow and easy" on my training plan is now supposed to be at 10:24.

This probably means I'm going to win my half-marathon. I'm sure of it. Actually, our cook told me the other day that I was going to win the half-marathon, because I practice so much. I smiled and nodded :)

I've been working on a baby quilt now longer than I've been training for this stinkin' half-marathon, because I'm slow and lazy and I made the stupid decision of "I think I'll hand stitch every one of these squares because that will be sooooooo cute". Yeah. That took too long. And now I've come to find out that my sewing machine is being a jerk to me. I tried all the things I could think of yesterday to get it to sew correctly - no good. That means I get to put the binding on by hand. I will!! I will do it!! Because baby Ismael has had the good grace to wait long past his due date - he must know I'm stressing out over this blanket. I gotta get on it!

I also finished a scarf last night for a friend. I will just show you a picture of it, and then explain later, after I give it to her. I highly doubt she reads this blog, but .... just in case.. I'm surprising her and I don't want to ruin it.

Isn't white a classy scarf color? Same pattern as the last scarf I made.

 

Yeah. That's my classy pose. 

After all is said I done, I will make a scarf for myself. My neck is cold.

Aye yi yi yiiiii

Run: 4.25 mi/42:20

I picked up the accordion a few years ago. Scratch that, many years ago. I forget how old I am. My last year of college, which would make it the summer of 2005, which was 5 years ago, and that explains how old I am. Aye yi yi is right.

I had great friends who encouraged me, bought me learn-to-play books for my birthday, put up with listening to me play the accordion (bless their hearts), and were mainly just really cool about it. I played in a band for about a year, which was one of the best things I have ever decided to do. But, honestly, for the past year or so it has sat in my room being useless. Useless because I don't do anything with it.

But I got it out the other night to show my new friends. And they liked it. They even invited my accordion to any gathering we have. I might play it this Saturday when we make lunch at the seniors' home (that's my kind of crowd!), and all of a sudden I have this huge itch to play with people. To get people together and play music. Where, oh where, will I find people to accompany an accordion? I need divine help.