Category: general

It had been awhile since I had a nice bike ride, so today I decided I would go on one. It had to be quick, because I needed to have time to shower and get over to Surrey Center to meet Brooke at 2 pm. So I set out on my ride at the absolutely stupidest time for outdoor activity: 12 noon.

I intended to just cruise through the neighborhoods on West Wheeler; that would keep me close to home and wouldn’t be overdoing it. However, once I got on the road, I found myself going up West Wheeler (literally–it’s a hill) to Wheeler Road.

“Let’s see how it would be to bike to the Y,” I said to myself, and so I turned right onto Wheeler.

For a good part of the way I was coasting, which is always a bad sign–it means I’ll be going uphill on the return trip. A hill began again towards the I-520 bridge–there’s a sign there that says “WATCH FOR BICYCLES ON BRIDGE”, which made me feel vindicated. Once over the hill I coasted again down to the Y, turning right onto Marks Church Road and then stopping in the grass at the entrance to the parking lot. The ride from my apartment had taken about 10 minutes, which I decided wasn’t bad at all.

However, I really need to get a new backpack. I’d put my phone and keys into the Connor and Logan totebag Mom gave me and hung the tote from the handlebars. The last hill coast sent the tote bag into the front wheel, covering it with grease and grinding a hole into it. So yeah. A backpack (or a bike bag) would be good.

I slung the tote bag over my right shoulder and crossed back over Mark’s Church Road so I could turn left on Wheeler at the light and head back to the apartment. The turn went fine (people across the way yielded for me!) and soon I was off up the bridge hill, then coasting briefly, and finally churning my way up the last big hill.

But about midway up I couldn’t pedal anymore. I slid off the bike and began walking it in the grass.

But then I started to feel terrible, like I was about to throw up, and I couldn’t stop panting. I didn’t want to stop moving, because the best exercise keeps your heart rate up, but after awhile I knew I had to. I rested the bike on its kickstand and stood for awhile.

Then I gave in and sat in the grass.

I took off my helmet and sat for what seemed like a long time, just focusing on relaxing and breathing. It seemed that traffic slowed down to look curiously in my direction, and I thought maybe I should come out here every day, to keep traffic at a decent rate on this road.

After awhile I felt reasonably better, so I stood back up. My legs felt like jelly, and a little lightheadedness gave me concern. I decided to keep going, though, so I could get home to the air conditioning, and get some water.

Because, like a moron, I didn’t bring any with me. I would have, if I’d planned from the beginning to go to the Y. But I had to go and be spontaneous. Note to self: always bring water, even if you’re not planning on a long ride, because knowing you, you’ll turn it into one.

I walked the rest of the way up the hill to the light. There isn’t a cross street there; it’s just a left turn, so I waited at the entrance to a parking lot for traffic to clear so I could cross the street to the left turn lane. This accomplished, I turned on the green and coasted back down the West Wheeler hill to Sanctuary.

Sanctuary!

I left everything in the middle of the floor–bike, helmet, tote bag–and collapsed in the office for a few minutes. Then I grabbed a bottle of water, which I have almost emptied.

It was a good ride. I didn’t realize it had been that long, though. I will need to start biking more frequently.

It looks like a bike ride to the Y on the weekend isn’t out of the question, as long as I go earlier or later in the day and bring water. Next time I will see about actually going in to the Y and maybe swimming or something. (I meant to check and see if there was a good place to tie up my bike, but by the time I was there I was ready to turn around, so I forgot.)

I’ve gotten rid of comics in my Webcomics list that either have been on hiatus forever or don’t update on a regular schedule. I don’t mind comics that update once a month or once a week or twice a week, as long as it’s mostly consistent…but comics that update “whenever the artist feels like it” (which usually translates to “once in a blue moon”) get on my nerves after awhile.

And comics that claim to have a regular schedule but then never update annoy the hell out of me.

So goodbye, comic that has been filled with nothing but cat photos for the last I don’t know how long.

Goodbye, comic whose site’s been down all week and which hardly ever updates anyway.

Goodbye, comic whose claim of “rapid-fire reruns” is absolutely false.

Goodbye, awesome comic that I’ve followed for years.

Goodbye, comic that started out strong but then went the way of the author’s other comic.

Goodbye, extraordinarily pretty comic of a friend-of-a-friend.

I’m open to replacement suggestions. If you know of any good, stable webcomics, let me know!

Contest!

If you can guess the comics above, I’ll draw a picture for you of whatever you want and post it here, and you can see why I don’t have a webcomic of my own.

Post your guesses in the comments! Whoever gets the most right by, oh, Monday night will be the winner, unless someone gets them all right before that, in which case that person will be the winner.

“Bob Barker is my pimp.”

I mean, come on. People would totally buy that!

This is so awesome.

(Alternate link, if the embedded player isn’t working.) Via Japundit.

I don’t have to throw my car into park, take the key out, start the car at the dangling ignition, put the key back in, put the car in drive, press carefully down on the gas and hope it won’t just stall again!

I don’t have to drive with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake!

I can just, like, drive normally!

And it just…runs.

Ah.

This is bliss.

It seems like there has been cake, or cookies, or pizza, or something naughty available to station employees every week I’ve been here.

A dozen or so of the ladies, myself included, threw $10 each into a weight loss pot. Whoever loses 10% of their body weight first wins all the money. (The guys, on the other hand, are betting on who will win.)

We all felt that the extra motivation would help.

So why do people keep bringing in all these goodies?

In any case, the cake is delicious :>

Bah!

Today Sean’s picking me up at lunchtime and we’re going to go get my car. The fuel something-or-other on the caburetor has been replaced, which means that there should no longer be a problem with gas getting to the engine. There is still a problem with the pressure in one of the cylinders–the explosion is “leaking”, per se, so that it doesn’t add as much oomph to the engine–but this is on a gradual decline, and is not worth messing with if we are simply getting rid of the car at the end of the year.

Which we are! We will be giving the Subaru to Ben and Manda, as promised, at Thanksgiving, and then buying me a new car.

At this point I’m thinking Yaris. Sean said the PT Cruiser didn’t get high marks in the car rating magazines he studied when he decided to buy a Corolla. Of course, we don’t know how well the Yaris rates, since it’s brand-new. (It’s the second generation of a car that has been around in Europe for several years. While we could find out how the first generation fared, that might not be very meaningful information.)

I have the rest of the year to decide. In the meantime, I will still be test-driving the Yaris liftback in the next couple of weeks.

This week I’ve been forced to get up earlier so that Sean could drive me to work and then go to work himself. I spend my morning in my office, wasting time online until 10:00 rolls around. After work I’ve been getting rides from coworkers, or Sean, or friends–Brooke picked me up yesterday and we went to the Greeneway.

When I get home I’m very tired. I figure something out about dinner (last night we both just ate cereal) and putter around on the computer. I always think that I will go to bed a little earlier so I can get more sleep, but then I end up staying up until midnight.

I don’t know if I actually do need more sleep or not; though I’m tired in the mornings I usually shake it off by the middle of the day. But of course, I’m then tired again after work.

I will be so glad to have my own transportation again. America’s general lack of decent public transportation means that I have been essentially stranded wherever I go. It would be nice if I could just hop on a local train or subway and be at or near my destination in half an hour or less, but hey, this isn’t Japan. If I did try public transportation, I’d probably have to walk a fair distance to a bus stop and then ride around for over an hour to get to work.

Here’s the Augusta Public Transit home page! It appears that I can go anywhere for $2.00. And here are the routes. Hmm. It looks like if I wanted to walk all the way to Target, I could get on the Sand Hills route (10) and that would take me downtown, and then I could take the Downtown Shuttle (18) to North Augusta. Let me revise my estimate; I think that would take a few hours ;P

I’d like to see a map with all their routes on it, instead of having individual maps. I’d also like a dynamic page that can figure out the best route to take based on my starting and ending positions, but whatever.

Oh well, you can’t say I didn’t try to understand Augusta Public Transit.

Bottom line: it will be good to have my car back.

It’s like how people who live in New York have never been to the Statue of Liberty.

Still, I found this article interesting.

As if custom-made hats, premium box seats and limo rides weren’t enough, the Kentucky Derby will now feature the $1,000 mint julep.

Sip this drink slowly.

The sweet cocktail will be made with one of the state’s finest bourbons and served in a gold-plated cup with a silver straw to the first 50 people willing to put down the cash at the May 6 race.

Mint from Morocco, ice from the Arctic Circle and sugar from the South Pacific will put this mint julep in a class of its own, the distillery selling the drink said.

“We thought we would reflect on and complement the international nature of the Kentucky Derby,” said Chris Morris, master distiller for Woodford Reserve. The distillery, owned by Louisville-based Brown-Forman Corp., will sell the drink only on race day to raise money for a charity for retired race horses.

I don’t drink, but my first reaction to this was “I want one!”

I am such a tourist/snob/rich person-wannabe. “It’s expensive, so obviously it must be awesome and therefore I must have it.” ;>

Today didn’t start off well.

I didn’t feel that I’d gotten enough sleep, even though I did wake up naturally right before my alarm, as I’ve been doing this week. I didn’t want to get up, so even after my alarm, I stayed in bed, not getting up until around 8.

The thought of going to work did not thrill me; I wanted to keep sleeping.

In the shower, I remembered that I still hadn’t bought any soap. We’ve been out for a couple days now. I bathed with my face wash.

“Heather,” Sean yelled later, as I was sitting at my computer reading news. He only calls me Heather to get my attention. He calls me Honey when he thinks I’ve done/said something silly/wrong/stupid, and he calls me Baby at all other times. Now you know the code!

I knew instantly it was about the soap, and I was annoyed. Surely he should know that I hadn’t bought any soap. Had he seen me leave the house the previous night? No. And I don’t have a car other than his, so I felt it should have been pretty obvious.

So I headed back there and told him there was no soap and that he should use his hand soap, and he resignedly shut the door.

Irritated, I drove to Eckerd and bought some soap while he showered.

I spent the rest of my before-work time grousing about how inconvenient my life is and how I have to do everything. Finally, in the car, I shared my feelings with Sean and worked towards a solution. But I was still unhappy when I got to work.

Then, as I was flipping on the light, I thought, We choose our mental state. I choose to make this a good day.

I know this works, but I’m always surprised when it does. After that I was cheerful, humming and singing to myself. I even called Audioblogger to record a song, which should show up eventually. :>

My day has only just begun. But it’s going to be a good one!

Yesterday was one of two non-family birthdays that I will probably always remember.

The other one is December 13.

Sadly, I still don’t have Brooke and Mari’s birthdays memorized.

I feel nauseated and bloated, and like I have indigestion.

You never think about how nausea and indigestion are different until you have them both at the same time. Or at least I don’t!

A throwaway line in this post by Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing interested me. I’ve emphasized it below:

Self-portrait in a French press coffee pot (“freedom press,” for patriots) by blogger and artist Kamala.

The non-hilarity of the joke aside, this brings up a question.

You see, I always got the impression that the liberal stance was “I love my country, including the part that says I have the right to question our government.” This line makes me think that the stance is now–or at least Jardin’s stance is–“I am not loyal to my country whatsoever.”

I’m not going to suggest that “If you don’t like it, get out”, but I do wonder whether someone who is so detached from his country should have any influence over that country’s policies.

Of course, Jardin is a commentator, not a politician…but her words do reach many people.

Look at this adorable kokeshi Brooke brought me back from England!

Her name is Hohoemi, according to the packaging and the little sign that came with her and the label stuck to her bottom. Ho ho ho!

Brooke told me she and David specifically looked for one of these because they knew I’d lost my original in the fire. Apparently they are very popular in England.

In the picture above, Hohoemi is sitting with the tray I bought at the oriental market on Dean’s Bridge, the chopstick rests I bought at that same market and at Hibari Market in Lexington, and a pair of chopsticks from the Dean’s Bridge market. All of these are sitting on the beautiful bar table Mom and Dad got for us:

They actually sent us two of these, due to a problem with the online ordering, and they said we could keep the second one too. Originally I was going to put them in the dining room, but after building the first one, I didn’t think it looked right, so I put it in the living room. We’ll have to see where the other one ends up.

As you can see, Sean has set up shop on the kotatsu. He loves it. As I have taken much delight in telling everyone, he keeps it on in 80 degree weather.

Originally he was disappointed by the size; we both expected it to be a little bigger. But then I remembered that it is a Japanese piece of furniture :>

I want a low black shelf to go on the wall where the TV is, to hold our books and DVDs. And then I want to get some rice paper accent lights. After that, the living room should be pretty much done, other than curtains and wall hangings.

You’ll note that I have moved the chairs out. One of them is in the office, serving as my desk chair. I put the other one in the bedroom yesterday. I think that works pretty well.

The rest of the bedroom needs serious work. Our new king-sized bed should be arriving soon, at which point we’ll pick a mattress. We’re thinking about TempurPedic, but we’re going to check out other options too. I’ve always been intrigued by the one with the “cells” that don’t distribute movement, so you can jump up and down on the bed without spilling a glass of red wine. We’ll just have to see what’s comfortable.

Other than the new bed, I’d like a chest of drawers and two night stands. The gold lamps from the living room will probably end up in the bedroom, since they don’t match the sleek style I’m going for, so the night stands will need to be large enough to accomodate them.

I’m thinking about putting the bed we have now in the office, so people can stay over, and to perhaps encourage Sean to come in here and be near me (he likes computing in bed). It just depends; there will need to be something, a small table or shelf or desk, on that wall to hold the router and modem, and Sean might decide he wants a desk after all…so there might not be room for the bed.

I still want a noren (or two!) for the kitchen. And depending on how I end up arranging the bar tables, we might need some sort of dining room table, too. We’ll see. I also still need a shelf for my bathroom.

In all, though, things are really coming together. I’m happy with our space and the things we’ve chosen to fill it :)

That’s right, kids; I used my Magic Bullet for the first time today.

After reading through the instructions and the sample recipes, I threw together some ingredients I had on hand and came up with a pretty darn good smoothie. Here’s the recipe, with nutritional info (because I love you).

Choco-Blackberry-Banana Smoothie (1 serving)

4 oz blackberry yogurt (Dannon Light ‘n Fit)
1 banana (mine happened to be very ripe)
1/2 of 1.61 oz. Almond Joy bar
1 cup ice
3 T skim milk

I recommend spacing the ingredients out; what I did was put them in in the order listed above, which caused the ice to block the blades. I had to shake the cup and even stir the ingredients to get the Magic Bullet to process them.

Nutritional Info

Nutrient Amt %DV Calories 314 15.7 Fat g 6.86 10.55 Saturated g 4.35 21.75 Polyunsat. g 0.147 0.65 Monounsat. g 0.087 0 Cholesterol mg 4.13 1.38 Sodium mg 117 4.88 Potassium mg 867 24.77 Carbohydrate g 60.2 20.07 Dietary Fiber g 4.88 19.52 Sugars g 15.7 26.17		Nutrient Amt %DV Protein g 7.51 15.02 Vitamin A mcg 107 2.14 Vitamin C mg 15.1 25.17 Calcium mg 212 21.2 Iron mg 0.72 4 Vitamin D IU 53.3 13.32 Vitamin E IU 0.613 2.04 Thiamin mcg 129 8.6 Riboflavin mcg 450 26.47 Niacin mg 0.912 4.56 Vitamin B6 mcg 1000 50		Nutrient Amt %DV Folate mcg 33.2 8.3 Vitamin B12 mcg 0.568 9.47 Panto. Acid mg 0.966 9.66 Phosphorus mg 177 17.7 Magnesium mg 64.7 16.18 Zinc mg 0.9 6 Copper mcg 186 9.3 Manganese mg 0.249 12.45 Selenium mcg 2.71 3.87 Water fl oz 12.6 11.67 Alcohol fl oz 0 0

Nutrition info generated by DietPower, based on my (possibly inaccurate) input.