While I'm thinking of beading...

Here are a few more little things I've been fiddling with!

Some sets of ringed markers, first.  The sushi beads continue to crack me up.  This set has blue accent beads with the sushi (I've also made ones with orange and green).  And I love these shiny purple and silver beads.  The set of beads that I got had beads in these colors in three different shapes, and I love them - so pretty!  The third set there is very spring-time-y, robins and bird houses.  I love the little robins :)

These two sets were made for me, inspired by the set I made for the Fall-time Swap. One is removeable, one isn't.  And if you look closely, you'll see that the "accent marker" (the odd one in the set) has the colors reversed in each set :)

And a bookmark, with kinda a Christmas-y feel, all red and gold.

 

Stitch Marker Swap!

Found a group of Ravelry for those who like making handmade stitch markers, and who like swaps.  So, combine the both, and ta-da!

The first swap I participated in just came through: the Fall-time Quickie :)  So, thank you very much Sandra, for my lovely little bunch of goodies!

These below are the markers I received in the swap package.  I love the little stones in them, but I really love the big leaf on the accent marker.  Fall time for me means leaves changing color, so out here in the desert (where we really don't even have leaves) I miss that a lot!  For some people, fall is corn or pumpkins or Halloween - for me, it's leaves.  So these were perfect for "fall" for me :)

Here are the stitch markers I made for my swap recipient.  I found a few other little fall-time goodies to include as well, but wanted to show off the markers I'd made to send :)  Hopefully she likes her package too!

Review: Sexy Beast

One that ended up on the queue after one of the "Top 100 Performances" lists came out, recognizing Ben Kingsley's performance here. So, rather a random one otherwise: Sexy Beast.

Plot:  Gal, a former safe-cracker, has retired with his wife Deedee and their friends Aitch and Jackie to settle in sunny Spain.  The quartet spends their days enjoying sunbathing, barbecues, lazy hunting trips, and other leisurely escapes after years in the London underworld.  Until Don Logan, a childish, violent and rather unforeseen disruption, appears from their past to convince Gal to take on one more job.  Though Gal keeps turning him down, Don doesn't take no for an answer, and the negotiations escalate, leading to... well, watch the movie! :)

The acting is indeed well done, and Ben Kingsley's performance is the highlight.  Ian McShane is good as the master organizer of the heist, but then he's always good as the icy-cold sort of characters.  It's all in the eyes - that dead, cold stare is just so good.  But it's Ben Kingsley who steals the show.  He's childish and aggressive and foul and sociopathic, all wrapped up in one bundle who thinks himself so much smoother than he really is.  One of those people who thinks he's so much bigger, smoother, cooler than he really is.  He really makes the movie worth watching - a different Don would have left a much lesser movie.  I liked a bit of trivia from IMDB's page on the movie - that Kingsley would use his acting of Don to vent "all the anger and tension he had in him, and then he'd be meek as a baby the rest of the day."  I can definitely see it'd be hard to have any aggressive feelings left in you after a full day as Don!

The music is a lot of fun, too. Just an edgy, upbeat sort of soundtrack - dunno, just fun.  Not much more to say :)

The acting's really the highlight of the movie, though. The writing has a lot of... well, oddities, for lack of a better word. For starters, what the heck is the rabbit monster??  There were lots of little things, too, which just didn't flow smoothly.  And the heist just seemed like an after thought, after all the build-up in the first part of the movie.  Left a weird feeling.

Another thought is really more about the advertising, rather than the movie itself.  Since I don't remember the actual trailers, I'm referring to plot summaries (online and on the movie packaging itself), posters, tag-lines, etc.  The advertising really made it seem like a heist film, but in actuality, the movie spends a lot more time on the relation and confrontation between Don and Gal.  Honestly, I think that's part of why I think the story felt so odd.  You think that a movie is a heist movie, then you're expecting something like The Bank Job or Ocean's 11 or The Great Train Robbery or similar.  You aren't expecting something where the actual heist (and all discussion and prep and everything else) is barely 30 minutes of the film.  Had they built up as more a confrontation of the characters (which it was), I probably wouldn't have felt so open-ended.

Overall:  3 of 5.  Some very strong acting (worth a watch for Ben Kingsley alone), some fun points, but rather a weird movie.  Not one for the shelf.

U is for...

"Unblocked lace is so unimpressive!"

This is a running joke with Zach from when I was working on I Do for the wedding a few years ago (almost 3 now!!).

With the lace pattern being such a long repeat, I would get excited on a regular basis as I finished a set of rows or reached a landmark (the elbow, for example) or something similar. Being such a lacy pattern, it's hard to see the progress in the piece when it's just a scrunchy white tube.

I would show Zach and get that "I'm supportive but kinda at a loss about what I'm supposed to be excited about" sort of enthusiasm as a response. I would laugh, "I know, I know, unblocked lace is so unimpressive!" So, in the course of that project, he got to learn about blocking and life lines ("what's this extra thread doing here?") and other knitting odds'n'ends.

Now it's just a running joke, since I like lace patterns, and depending on the yarn, pattern, etc. you can't always see what's there to be appreciated. So, if it's one of those patterns that you can't really see the amazing lace that I'm so excited about, Zach will just grin and say in mock sympathy, "Unblocked lace is just so unimpressive!"

Random result from Long Beach trip

Straight hair!  At least temporarily!

I needed a haircut anyway - gotta trim up the dried-out, desert-and-pool-wrecked split ends, even if I'm still growing it out.  And since the stylist was playing with it anyway, I asked if she could straighten it too.  So, one flat iron and nearly an hour later (I've a lot of hair!)... ta-da!

I don't think it's a look I'll do often (maaaaaaybe once in a blue moon), especially as it's still long.  It's just TOO MUCH time!  I wasn't kidding when I said it was nearly an hour!  Maybe when it's shorter, it won't take so long.  Still, it's an interesting experience, having long straight hair.  Laughing with Anne, "I feel like there's nothing on my head!"  Her response?  "Welcome to the world of the fine and flat."

And here I am with the Welcome Home Committee, too!

Oh, and just for bragging purposes, the shirt I'm modeling in these pictures is the participants' shirt from the marathon this weekend :)  They had separate sizing for Mens v. Womens.  Finally, a technical race shirt that FITS!!

Fun in Long Beach!

If you needed another reason to run the Long Beach Marathon (or Half), consider the goody bag!  One of the race sponsors is the Aquarium of the Pacific, and our goody bags included a free admission to the Aquarium!

It made for a great cool-down day :)  One of the ways that you are supposed to recover from a long race is to keep moving over the following several days.  Keeps your muscles from tightening up, works out all the lactic acid build-up - all that good stuff.  So, we set out for a scenic wander through the Aquarium and along Shoreline Village.

Seeing as it was the day after the race, my legs were obviously still sore.  I was walking alright, just a little slower than usual, but I was REALLY slow on stairs, going up or down. Zach was very amused at my effort on the stairs and had several good chuckles at my expense.  The kicker, though, was seeing other runners going through the same thing!  We were at one stairway, Zach chuckling at me of course, and heard giggling behind us.  A pair of girls about my age were attacking the stairs with the same difficult walk that I had.  Asked them, "You guys run yesterday too?"  "Yup!  We've been laughing at our 'old lady walks' all morning!"  At least I'm not alone!

We saw feeding time at the tropical tank, too.  The sting rays like to swarm against the glass, since they need the hard surface to vacuum up their snacks.  For the fish that like vegetable matter, though, they bring in lettuce and broccoli.  I thought is was adorable, watching the divers holding the broccoli like a bunch of flowers, plucking off "petals" for the fish gathering around them :)

 

 

And here you go, a handful of pictures from the Aquarium, some of my favorite shots - really what this post's about :)

 

Funniest fish name?  The Sexy Shrimp! (Pictured on left)  Followed closely by the Humbug (the black and white fish on the right)    :)

 

And anyone else think Dory is a great mascot for a marathoner?  "Just keep running, just keep running..."

 

Oh, and the clouds were still gorgeous near the lighthouse :)

Run in Long Beach!!

Marathon No. 2 in the bag!!  And it was a good run too!  I am quite satisfied :)  One of the nice things about being a slower runner is that you have time to grab a few pics - on water breaks, walk breaks, etc.  If you're pushing for a sub-4 or a Boston Qualifying time, it's a little hard to capture on film what you're running past - every second counts.  I have bit more time at my disposal and can take the moment to click the shutter :)

Here we are getting ready to go.  Funny thing was, a friend was starting in the same wave, and we never found each other!  Two short girls in the same crowd of people does make it hard to find one another :)

And finally, the starting line!  Here we go!

The course was really scenic.  Part of what I look for in a race - either lots going on (like a Rock and Roll race, for example) or a really scenic course.  The course planners were great for this one.  We passed lots of city landmarks, and lots of waterfront, all of which made for a very pretty course.  For example, we got a good view of the Queen Mary at one of the early water stops...

...and then again when we got to the other side of the harbor.  Not that the view just along the boardwalk isn't beautiful too!

The lighthouse (a bit blurry in the background here - I wasn't totally at a stop) is another of the iconic images around the harbor.  It's featured prominently on the medal and shirt too.  It's actually featured twice on the medal, if you look - once on the medal, and printed on the ribbon too!  They did a nice job on the medal design, in my own little opinion :)  The beads I pictured with my medal were passed out by one of the cheering groups further along in the race.  I thought it was very appropriate that the ones I was handed were green and gold!  :)

 

I was proud of my pace, too.  I actually stayed with the 5:30 pace group up until about mile 18.  The pacers for that group were great, too.  "The 5:30 Pace Group - the happiest group on Earth."  They were full of songs and tips and chatter - definitely helped the miles pass!  I wish I'd been able to hang with them through the whole race, but at mile 18 (which seems to be my wall) I needed to be taking longer walk breaks than the group did, so I fell back.  At least I didn't literally fall like I did in San Diego!  Still, I hung with them the first 2/3 of the race, and considering how erratic my training was in September, I'm pretty proud of that.

One of the really good things our pacers talked about was how to run a long race like this.  Deb (one of the pacers - she's in the white top and red shorts in the pictures) described dividing the race into thirds (about 8-9 miles each in a full marathon), each one run with a different part of the body.  The first third she said, you have to run with your head.  You have to be smart about your pacing, not take it out too fast, and keep a close eye on your time.  These are the miles when your legs and your body are fresh, and it's easy to go out too fast.  The second third is the section of the race run with your legs.  Your body settles into a good pace, and you can let your mind zone out and just run.  Sort of the autopilot miles of the race :)  The last third of the race are the miles run with your heart.  Your legs are tired at this point.  These are the miles when you dig in, use your mind, your will power, your gut, your adrenaline, whatever you have left in you to finish out.  I really liked this description, because it makes so much sense!!

Oh, and the pictures below are of the view across the harbor to the Aquarium of the Pacific, another Long Beach landmark.  It's the kinda wavy-looking rooftop across the water from where I am.  Another runner saw me grabbing some water and a couple pics and offered to shoot one with me in it.  Thank you, Mr. LA Legger (his club name - didn't get his own)!

 

Still hanging with the 5:30 group in these pics below (about mile 8).  We had a good few miles along the beach itself.  Not running on the sand, of course, but on the bike path.  And being such a beach person myself, I LOVED it!  Funny thing is, I'm not a "beach person" in the always at the oceanfront, surfing, body boarding, sun bunny sort of person.  But I am a "big water" person.  I love open expanses of water, and at this time of year, I miss the greyness, the cool lighting, the clouds that seem to melt into the water.  I got tons of that on this run, and it was wonderful!!

This unusual building here is the Pyramid on the CSU-LB campus.  Part of the marathon course (once the half marathon split off) wound through the campus.  The Pyramid is one of the unique landmarks on the campus - I think it's a stadium, but haven't looked that up.  Certainly looks big enough!  It was fun running through the campus too.  Lots of student groups came out to cheer.  Not hundreds of spectators or anything like that, but a sorority there, a fraternity here.  I think the track club ran one of the water stations :)  The black shirts in the right of the picture are fraternity pledges, for example.  One of the sororities was great with cheering.  The race number bibs could have your name printed on them if you wanted (mine did).  So this sorority was making sure to use everyone's name that they could see.  It's one of those little things that really gives you a boost at mile 20 - hearing your own name being cheered!

This is one of the Long Beach-specific things they have done a few times before.  They build a giant sand sculpture in the finisher's area.  And I mean giant - 13 ft high and about 40 tons of sand!  Makes for a good final picture :)  It's actually 2-sided, too.  The front is the front of the medal, and the back is the ribbon and reverse of the medal.  I'd show that picture too, but Zach snapped the shutter as I was talking, and I'm making the most ridiculous face - almost looks like I'm crying!  (Oh, I'm not looking at the camera here because I'm looking at the professional photographer next to him)

And I PR-ed too (i.e. new best time!).  My time in San Diego was just over 6 hrs (I'm not fast, remember - I just run very far).  I took off nearly 12 minutes from my last marathon time in this race - about 30 seconds faster per mile!  And now I just need to decide what charm best represents this race to add to my bracelet - a cruise ship like the Queen Mary, or a little white lighthouse :)