Little side note

Something one of my staff pointed out to me today:

At 5 minutes and 6 seconds past 4 o'clock today (both a.m. and p.m. of course) it was 4:05:06 on 07-08-09.

For the US at least - I guess that wouldn't work as well in the UK today, have to wait til August 7th. Still, how often will that happen?

Yup, yup...

I have no life :)

In case there are any other Neopets fans out there, (and for people like Zach who enjoy chuckling at me), we did well in the Cup. Shenkuu took second overall. We were ranked 4th going into the finals, beat the 1st place team to move to finals, and then lost to Krawk Island in the final match.

Yes, the Pirates did beat the Ninjas.

Cracks Zach up no end.

Still, I had fun. And as summer is the busiest time of the year for me at work, and July is certainly the worst month, I have appreciated a month of silly computer games :)

And of course, as a die-hard Cubs fan, I am used to the mindset of "There's always next year!" Bring it on AC V!

M is for...

Marshmallow Jonesin'!

When you want toasted marshmallows, you WANT toasted marshmallows! (I know you'll like this one, Anne!)

For me, it also meant that I finally found something I like about our horrible stove. Mom tells me that gas stoves and ovens are preferred by some because you can adjust the temperature more precisely, not just the numeric clicks on an electric. I dunno. Maybe we just got a lemon, or maybe this is another example of the high quality we get out here beyond the edge of nowhere :\ The oven part heats highly inconsistently. Can put the same type frozen pizza - brand, style, everything - in the oven on two different nights, and use the same temperature and same time, and one day it'll be perfect, almost too crispy, and another we'll have to add six minutes and it'll still be underdone. And then the stove's perfect level for simmering has a nice whistle to it. Very noticeable, and when something has to simmer for 20 minutes (like rice), also very annoying. Like I said, am not too fond of this stove. Can't wait til we actually have a place where we can get our own!

BUT, what it IS good for is toasting 'shmellows. Seeing as we live in the desert, where the average temperature in the summer melts marshmallows (or pens or whatever else you unintentionally forget in your car), it's a little too hot to light up the grill and toast outside. And being raised on actual TOASTED marshmallows (not the ones heated up in the microwave, like some recipe sites advertise), there's really no substitute. And when that craving hits... So, I found a solution :)

The pictures were from a day when I actually did this with Zach home. He came around the corner into the kitchen wondering what smelled good, and saw me standing there. He just started laughing and laughing and grabbed the camera (a rare move for him, so it does let you know how funny he found it). I ended up with an odd look on my face, because I was trying to ignore him :)



PS - For those of you that don't get the reference, watch "Red Dragon" with Anthony Hopkins and Edward Norton. Edward Norton says the line :)

L is for...

Lara!

That's me! I just like this picture of me. One of those stretch-your-arm-out-to-take-a-picture-of-yourself pictures that actually came out well! :)

I have an unusual name. Well, not incredibly unusual, but different enough that most people spell it "Laura" or don't know how to pronounce it if they are reading it. I think I was in middle school before I had a substitute teacher actually pronounce it correctly on the first try, and my 9th grade PE teacher never could get it right. Whole year in her class, and she never could hear the subtle differences in my correct pronunciation and how she was pronouncing it. It's gotten better in recent years, with the popularity of the Tomb Raider games and movies, but still, more people than not have no idea how to pronounce and/or spell it.

So, here goes: Lahr'-ah.
The first syllable is the one accented and it has the same vowel sound as "car". (Doesn't rhyme with Sara.)

Some people recognize it because of Lara Croft (Tomb Raider). More literary types recognize it from Dr Zhivago (which, for the record, is where my parents got the spelling). My best friend in high school found that hysterical - he knew Lara was the great love of Zhivago's life, but didn't realize she was the mistress until he read the book for a research paper. Found it incredibly funny that quiet little ol' me was named for the home-wrecker! Apparently I don't fit the image he had of one :) I guess that's a good thing?

There's actually a group of Laras on Ravelry. We're just cool people that way :) It was nice talking to people with the exact same frustrations about one's own name. One lady had a story of her first grade teacher actually sending home her papers with the name "corrected" on it! Poor little kid was in tears! Never had any encounters quite that bad. I just have an irresistible urge to find things with my name printed on them. You know - the cheap key chains, notepads, pens, similar tchotches with names preprinted on them. I always have a bet with myself that "Lara" won't be on there, so I always have to look. So far have found 2 things - a key chain from Las Vegas (no spot on the rack for "Lara" but there was the key chain!) and a bookmark from Salisbury Cathedral in England. For the record, I did have to purchase both :)

So, yes, was running out of good ideas for L, so figured I'd chat about my name. And besides, like I said above, I like that picture of me :)

Yeah, yeah

Haven't been posting much, but things've been busy here. Unfortunately, not busy-exciting, just regular ol' busy.

Summer's finally here, so work's going all crazy. Not to pieces (hopefully nothing else breaks this summer - at least let us make it through the season!!) but just busy. That's what you get for working a job with definite Seasons to it, I guess :) I do like my job, most days, (like any job, I guess) but MAN, when it hits, it HITS!

So, yes, very busy.

Surprisingly busy outside of work too. It's been unseasonably pleasant here the past few weeks, so we've been trying to do a little bit outside before the "regular" summer hits. Starting to feel like a normal desert summer now, but starting back at the beginning of June, we were having GORGEOUS weather! Almost outright chilly a few days! For those that don't know, in this area, normal June temperatures are in the upper 90s, not the upper 70s, like it was about a week and a half ago. It was really funny talking to all the families who've been stationed out here for at least a year - you know, the ones that KNOW this is unusual weather. What was funny was listening to us all talk. Every conversation had "I'm not complaining, but..." or some similar variation, as we all observed how unusual the weather was :) All of us were noting it was odd, and at the same time, trying not to jinx ourselves into normal weather! :) But, our brief respite is now over, and the weather is turning into the normal windy, cloudless, overheated oven that summer is out here. (sigh...) Well, it was WONDERFUL while it lasted!

My other big excuse for not posting: the Altador Cup.

On busy days, I relax with computer games. Not gamer-type games - that's a realm of geekdom I have yet to enter. More like Popcap and similar flash games. Give me brightly colored puzzle or arcade games and I'm happy as a clam. Like Neopets. Flash games and cute animals - what's not to like? And by "like," I mean become mildly addicted... (Blast you, Anne, for getting me started!!)

Anyhoo, Neopets has several events during the year. Plots (adventure storylines you follow in the Neopian world) or game challenges or whatever. In the summer, it's the Altador Cup, a game challenge where you join a team from the Neopian world, and play games to earn points for your team. It's all centered around a soccer/jai alai type sport called yooyuball, so there's the World-Cup-esque mindset to it. All in bright colors with tiny fictional animals playing the games, of course :) Very silly, and after a tiring day at work with lots of screaming kids and/or adults, it's a nice way to relax

I joined the Shenkuu Ninjas :) Go Shenkuu! We're actually doing pretty well - I think we're in 4th overall (of 16 teams) as I'm writing this.

(C'mon - who wouldn't want to be a Ninja?? Unless you wanted to join the Krawk Island Pirates, I suppose...)

K is for...

Kitten.

This is a sad post, as we had to say goodbye today to our sweet Siamese, Mr. Frank. This is the family cat, the one we got when I was back in high school, who lived back home with Mom. He wasn't a kitten anymore, but we got him as a kitten, so even though he was 12, I still think of him as the kitten. He wasn't very old, but he got very sick this spring, and today Mom had to take him to the vet's one last time.

He was a marvelous cat, so different from Scruffy. Each of the cats in my life has really been such a unique personality. TJ (the first family cat, pre-child, before my sister and I came along) was the old man, keeping the 'new arrivals' in line as Anne and I grew up. Scruffy is... well... a doofus, but sweet and affectionate as anything. Frank was the dignified man of the house. Still very loving, very attached to "his" people, but more aloof and typically feline in expressing it. And so particular! Everything had a schedule, and you should stick to it! When Anne and I were in high school, he knew when we woke up, when we got back from school, etc. If we went out with friends, we heard about it when we got home. Siamese are very chatty cats, with quite a vocabulary, and he used his full vocabulary to fuss at us. You could just hear him, "Did you get this approved before you were out so late? Did you get my permission?" The changing of our sports seasons in HS always threw him for a little bit, until he got used to the new times we were coming home.

He was a beautiful cat, a blue point Siamese. For those unlucky enough to have never been adopted by a Siamese cat, they come in a variety of colors. The most common one is the seal point (brown body, black points - the face, paws, and tail). The next lighter is the chocolate point, light brown with dark brown points. Then the blue point, like Frank - light grey and dark grey points. The lightest is the lilac point, very light grey with medium grey points. We thought Frank was a lilac at first, but then he got darker and darker as he got older.

And of course, the blue Siamese eyes. He even had the characteristic Siamese cross-eye, though it was only noticeable if his pupils were dilated just right. That's where he got his name, those eyes. When we were trying to think of a name for him, someone mentioned "lil' ol' blue eyes." Of course, that brought up Sinatra, and from there: Frank. Though sometime over the years, Mom decided that Frank was a nickname for Francis, and so that is what he was called when he was in trouble. :) Really wish I'd been able to take a good picture of those eyes, but you know how hard it is to deal with pets' red eyes.

He loved Christmas too. Was always very interested in the tree when it arrived. He never tried to climb it, but he loved the fuzzy tree skirt we have. Had his little spot under the tree where he would "loaf" (that little feet-tucked-in position cats have) and would always get upset when the gathering presents finally completely covered "his" spot under the tree. Christmas morning, he'd be back under there as soon as he could! The picture above is him wondering where his fuzzy tree skirt has gone.

And mint, too - looooved mint. Apparently mint is in the same family as catnip? He would rub all over the bags of mint candies we'd have at Christmas time for cookie making. The picture above is one of those times. Attracted his attention more than his catnip toys some days! And he liked mint teas too! We actually caught him on the table once, licking at a used mint tea bag!! From then on, we'd give him a little saucer of mint tea if we were making a cup for ourselves. He loved it!

So, since there will always be at least one cat in my life at any given time, K is for Kitten, but today, it's also specifically for Mistah Fwank.

1997-2009. At the Rainbow Bridge.

Life to-do list: Finish a Marathon...

CHECK!

I did it! I finished on Sunday! Not fast, but I finished, and I wasn't last, and I wasn't close to being cut off at the checkpoints, so I'm pleased!

I honestly did have fun. The R&R series of races does a lot to make all those miles fun. The bands obviously. The water stations were themed. Lots of folk coming out to cheer for us. Plenty to distract you as much as possible from the miles and miles you're running!

My favorite water stations:

• The Girl Scouts in the area (I didn't notice if it was a troop or a council) did a jungle theme - music like "Welcome to the Jungle," "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," etc, all the girls in animal prints, even the balloons were decorated as animal prints. The leaders stood near the start of that water station with "Beware of the Animal" signs :)
• A church manned a station that was "Back to the 1980s" (the sign was a take-off of the Back to the Future Logo). They had a DeLorean parked out front as you approached the water station, and guys dressed as Marty and Doc. There was someone in a Rubick's Cube costume, and everyone else was in as stereotypical 80's fashion. Probably had tons of fun raiding the thrift stores for some of those pieces!
  

My favorite bands:

• A band of sailors early on was a punk band with a female lead - was playing a couple Paramore songs as I was running past. Could tell they were sailors because they were in uniform :) The lead singer's voice was pretty good really, and it just made me smile seeing the guitarist getting into the music and headbanging, with the standard military buzz cut (no long rock-star hair allowed on ship!)
• Mile 22 - a Dave Matthews cover band. For a good little VA girl, I've grown up around a lot of DMB (the band was founded at UVA, if you were not aware) His shows were always really big in Va Beach where I grew up. So it was definitely a boost hearing one of my favorites starting up as I'm struggling up the last hill on the course. The drummer saw me singing along and smiled - would've paused and cheered more, but if I'd slowed down on that hill, I don't think I'd've made it all the way up!
  

My other favorites about the course:

• The weather! It was humid and overcast and cool - all the things our weather here in the desert ISN'T! I'd forgotten how much easier it is to breathe on a run when your lungs are drying out inside you! And the clouds were wonderful - between a high of 67 on race day, and all the clouds, it was really comfortable running weather.
• The course was really pretty. Some less scenic parts, of course, but it wound by the water and past several San Diego landmarks (Petco Park, Balboa Park, downtown, the waterfront...)
• The course was also convenient for spectators. The trolley routes came close to the course at several points, so spectators could move around the city and cheer for their runners at several locations. Zach came along this weekend as my cheering section, and he found another guy cheering for his girl, and the two of them hopped on and off the trolley several times to cheer for us along the route. It worked out really well, because the other runner was about 3 minutes ahead of me, so the two guys would cheer for her, then for me and then back on the trolley to the next point! (I do have to say, that the finish line being on a military post was inconvenient for viewers - Zach said a lot of people were turned away for not having proper ID, and he even saw some runners being held up because though they were still wearing their timing chip on their shoe, they had taken off their shirt which had their race number on it)

My time was slower than what I'd hoped for, but considering how few long runs I was able to do while training, I'm not upset. I still finished, right? I also fell down at about mile 18.5 and scraped up my hands and a knee. Had to walk a couple miles after that, just to let myself settle back down. Still, the stinging in my hands did distract me from how tired my legs were! :) Thankfully, my fall was just a little from an aid station and from the second check point (just about the same spot), so (1) I could get band-aids pretty quickly, and (2) my unexpected walking was all done after the cut-off, so I knew I would be able to finish! Once you're past the cut-offs, you are clear to finish. If you don't make it to the cut-offs by certain times, you are rerouted, so that the city can make sure the roads will open up on time.

I'm hurting like crazy today, but it's not as bad as I thought I'd be hurting. So I guess I wasn't as totally out of shape as I felt yesterday? :) It's also helping that I'm in the water a lot this week, so can stretch out and stay active without having to run.

Oh, and if you want to see more pictures, check them out here! And yes, I am holding my hands funny as I'm waving at the camera in several pictures. I told you I fell, right? :)