So I finally broke open the winemaking kit that Jay got me for Christmas last year! It's much easier than I realized. Kinda makes me want to grow my own grapes.
At the very least, the first stage was pretty easy. After a few more days, we'll read the specific gravity of the mixture to make sure that the fermenting is ready to move on to the next stage. The wine will go into the carbiner and get some stuff added to it next. It should be ready to bottle for aging in early December. It will make over two cases!
This morning I ran the SeaWitch 5k. It was lots of fun... very low-key and a great course. Nice scenery and most importantly, it was flat. I felt that I was much faster than last time but not according to my running app. Then again, I was running in costume and had to stop or slow down to nearly stopped a few times to put my dagger back in the holder or fix my skirt.
The exciting news is that I ran for the entire first mile, which I don't think I've ever done before. I ran the first mile in 12:41 according to my app. I wish that I had paced myself a little better, but overall I'm proud of how I did. I haven't seen the official results yet, but I'm expecting to be around 40 minutes again.
We're badass pirates.
This was post-race... look, we don't even look winded. We could just keep on running... HA!
There are a few more runs in my future... I'm definitely planning on the Turkey Trot next month. After all, it's only two miles. Hell, I might even be able to run the entire time. The week after the Turkey Trot is the run for hospice in Easton. Of course, that's assuming that I'm off work on that day. We'll see I guess.
I've also checked a few other things off of my 101 list. Check out the details here. On a side note, I have been watching Fringe on Netflix. I am HOOKED. I just started the 3rd season and I don't know how I survived without it for so long. Because of the show, I have developed an insane crush on Peter Bishop. No, not Joshua Jackson. The actual character Peter Bishop. I'm sure that Joshua Jackson is a great guy, but unless he has all the geeky adorableness of Peter Bishop, I don't want him. That's all for now. Lots of busy happenings.
I’ve been sick, out of sorts, and pulled in many
directions. I also had an overwhelming amount of fun (including a random meeting of Kelly's sister) over the weekend. So I'm still a little tired from last weekend's shenanigans. I hope to post about my crazy fun weekend, but alas I have no photos! That may be for the best, as it involved swimwear and a floating cooler.
But I digress.
Lately I’ve
found my life defined by quotes from the Lord of the Rings. I make no apologies
for my use of LOTR references in this post. Consider yourself warned!
“They’re scattered, divided, leaderless.”
My thoughts are scattered. There has been a lot to think
about lately. Just a few weeks ago, I thought that I had it all figured out
Shortly after
writing about my deep thoughts, I sent my application and transcripts to
Chesapeake College to start the process of getting my BA in social work.
Last Wednesday, I talked to someone about a
job opportunity in the financial services industry. It would be similar to the
work I did at my last job with Wilmington Trust. It wasn’t an interview - just a chat to learn
about the position and the person’s vision going forward. Aforementioned person
heard that I’m an ideal candidate for the position. It was a nice ego boost for
someone to approach me about a job when I’m not even looking.
Like I said in
an earlier post, I like my current job. I don’t love it because I feel like I’m not making much of a difference. This
particular opportunity would in some ways let me make a difference. Helping
people achieve their financial goals makes a difference. I can get behind that.
However, I’m not
the kind of person who would leave their employer after such a short period. I
also don’t know if this opportunity is the right fit. There is definitely a lot
of risk involved. My current position is stable and has awesome benefits. There
is also a new regional director coming onboard next month who I think is going
to be great to work with. But I have been leaderless since July, and I’ve felt
a bit afloat here despite the local directors calling me “Boss.”
"I'm old, Gandalf. I know I don't look it, but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart. I feel thin, sort of stretched. Like butter scraped over too much bread."
Then there’s
that 4 year degree on my bucket list. If I ultimately decide to pursue the financial services position, do I get my business admin degree, which I’m not all that excited about… or do
I proceed with my BA in social work? Ultimately I can go on to get my MSW. Maybe I
could even knock out my MSW before 40 if I work really hard. It’s only 7 years away, I have to be realistic.
Perhaps I have career ADHD. Or regular ADHD. Or maybe it’s
just my personality:
What ENFP’s
are actually searching for, however, is more mental in nature, such as words,
ideas, or possibilities (i.e., Ne). ENFPs are constantly generating new ideas,
associations, and quips. They can often seem random, scattered, distracted, and
flighty and, rightly or not, are commonly diagnosed with ADD or ADHD.
Like
other NP types, ENFPs place high value on their personal experiences when it
comes to discerning truth. Though not to the same extent as ESFPs, for ENFPs,
“experiencing is believing.” Because of the high value they place on their
personal experiences, ENFPs may feel they cannot fully know themselves until
they have tried just about everything (contrast this with INJs, who feel they
know whether they will like something without needing to experience it). For
this reason, ENFPs are quintessential seekers and dilettantes, wanting to
experience as much of life and the world as is humanly possible. In many
regards, the interests and aspirations of ENFPs are infinite. This can be
nothing less than exhausting for those trying to stay apace with them.
I think that’s enough seriousness for now.
“We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances!”
This weekend I’m running my first 5k. I slowed my progress a few weeks ago, thinking that I would still be finished the program in plenty
of time. Then I got sick and missed a week and a half of runs. Then I hurt my
knee. Then I read an article that said to avoid injuries, run faster. Of course
I couldn’t keep up with my fast pace and had to walk a lot. Like Gimli, I’m a
natural sprinter.
And you know
what? I am way faster doing a walking/running combination than I am running at
a sustainable pace. So I’ll be walk-running this 5k. I have one run left before
Saturday and I’m going to try to get my endurance up. That means running the
entire 25 minutes of my Week 7 Day 2, but at a slower pace. I’m not sure what I’ll
do on Saturday, but my main goal is to finish in 45 minutes or under. I think
that is more than doable.
I’m not sure that
running will be my main exercise after I complete the C25k program (on pace to
finish on or around September 22nd) but I will probably try to run
once or twice a week in addition to other exercise. In a perfect world, I’d
like to do a combination of yoga, pilates, running, swimming and elliptical
each week. With some ballroom dancing thrown in. Jay and I were talking about taking
lessons again since we had such fun learning scuba together. Of course he’s all
into MMA at the moment. So perhaps the
ballroom dancing will have to wait.
Oh, and look at the message that my tea gave me today:
I feel like I'm a little too much into experiencing myself lately. I think that I need to get out of my own head a bit.
Well said, Bilbo. Some time off would be swell. Who wants to tell my boss that I need a mental health week?
The last week has been busier than usual and I’m quite worn
out!
Last Wednesday I took the final exam for my PADI open water
diver class. I missed one question on the entire thing and I doubt that I’ll
ever hear the end of it from Jay, who of course was the first one done and got
a 100%. For the record, both the test and the textbook could benefit from some editing.
The test did send me into a case of the giggles and I thought I was going to
totally lose it. There were six or so questions on hand signals and underwater
communications. One of the illustrations was the signal for share air. The
selections were along the lines of “a. I’m hungry! B. Are you thirsty? C. Share Air.” Other
favorite answers from this section were:
Will you be my buddy? <-- Low on air) Wave to friends on the shore/boat. (<--Help!)
My finger is cold. (<--OK
signal)
Seriously, my finger is cold? If someone selected that
answer on their test, I would never want to be paired up with them on a dive!
This is the OK/My finger is cold signal
Although we haven’t completed our check-out dives yet, I
feel pretty comfortable marking off “learn how to SCUBA dive” from my Seasonal Bucket List. After all, I've had four open water dives already - I just didn't know all of the skills until I took the class.
Our checkout dives are scheduled for the last weekend in
September. Jay is suddenly gung-ho about diving, so I’m pretty sure that we’ll
be getting our Advanced Open Water certifications next – likely in October.
Apparently DCFD is in the process of assembling a dive team. So I’m sure that
Rescue Diver will be on the list after AOW. It’s a slippery slope. Before long,
we’ll be selling the house and buying a dive operation in Australia. Remember
this lengthy post on experiences and choices? Maybe we’ll buy a liveaboard boat and charter dives in
the Whitsundays!
On to the next…
Running had been going well. I’m still terribly slow, but I’m
building up my endurance. Technically I’m at Week 6 Day 3 of Couch to 5k.
However, my last run on Saturday was terrible and there’s no way that I’m ready
for a 22 minute run.
I’m backing up to Week 6 Day 1. This seems much more
reasonable to me.
Since I've been doing Couch 25k, I haven't been paying much attention to what I've been eating. I felt like I'd probably lost weight since I've been good about exercising. Unfortunately, I haven't lost anything. I may have even gained weight. So it's back to faithful tracking with LoseIt. After all, I've gotta look good for my vacation to the Dominican Republic.
Summerfest was over the weekend and I spent many hours
scooping ice cream.
Then I wandered, watched the fireworks from Harry’s, and had
a bit too much to drink at the pub.
I took a lot of photos there and most of
them are blurry.
Lots of photos to come tomorrow on Wordless Wednesday. A summer photo dump!
Last weekend we packed up the family and headed down to visit our friends at Snowshoe, WV.
It also happened to be the same weekend as Blues, Brews & BBQ. Perfect timing.
Our friends' daughter Grace was turning 2, so we brought her some books. However, we didn't want her almost 4 year old brother to feel left out, so Jay picked out a book for him.
Grace grew tired of her birthday tutu, so everyone took turns wearing it.
Jay... everyone's favorite uncle.
Double yolker from one of our Anconas
We arrived home to discover that two of our new girls finally started laying... AND one of our roosters was missing. A few feathers were the only clue of his disappearance.
Post-run and filthy from wing clipping. This is Lucky, no worse for the wear after her neck degloving injury when she was two weeks old
Monday morning I received a phone call from one of my girlfriends. A neighbor had posted on my Facebook page that a dog was attacking our chickens. That explains what happened to the rooster!
I'm pretty sure that the dog belongs to one of the neighbors at the end of our village, but of course they don't keep it confined to a yard or tied up. I can't blame the poor dog, it's the people that are the problem. Our neighbor called animal control who caught it and took it to the humane society. The animal control officer said that someone pulled in the driveway after they caught the dog. The person claimed that the dog had been hanging out there and they thought that the previous owners had left it. I don't buy it for a second... I'm sure that the person was just worried about getting in trouble.
The neighbor managed to get the hen away from the dog. It looks like it was my silver laced wyandotte, who is a gorgeous bird. She doesn't appear to have any blood or wounds fortunately. Poor girl.
The flighty hens (Anconas, White Marans, Easter Eggers and Wyandottes) all had their wings clipped when I got home from my run at Adkins Arboretum. No more escaping their run to get into trouble. Only supervised free ranging from here on out!
Running is going well. I'm slow, but I've been sticking with the C25k program. I start Week 6 with my next run. Last night I was supposed to run 20 minutes straight with no stopping. I opted for a lovely wooded path that turned out to be narrow and filled with roots and spiderwebs. So between the arachnoleptic fits and tripping over things, I made it to 11 minutes before I had to walk. However, I only walked for a minute & a half before finishing the rest of the program. Not too shabby.
Our SCUBA class is almost over. It's been a lot of fun and I will miss the regular pool work. I never thought that I would end up being so comfortable underwater - especially considering my fear of deep water. The difficulties that I had doing the skills during Discover SCUBA in Australia are almost laughable to me now. I can now set up my gear, doff and don my SCUBA equipment at depth and the surface, remove & replace my mask and clear it, use an alternate air source, recover my regulator, maintain neutral buoyancy (it's admittedly a work in progress), do a tired diver tow, all sorts of things.
The final exam is on Wednesday and we'll be doing our open water checkout dives on September 28th and 29th at Lake Rawlings. I was hoping to get our Advanced Open Water course completed next... which we really could do by mid-October. However, we are hoping to buy a new car by the end of the year and we need to put any extra cash towards a down payment. Not to mention that we'll probably be spending a lot of money when we get our puppy! No word on a breeding yet, so it looks like we'll be bringing home puppy closer to Christmas or even January.
The hubby and I are supposed to have date night tonight. Date night last month was canceled because our friend Brian came to visit. One advantage to having date night on the first Friday of the month is that we get bonus points on our Chase Sapphire Preferred Card for anything we spend dining. Jay wants to do something active. I'm not so sure that my body is up for much more than a walk. I've been good. Too good. Since last Friday, I have only had one day off of active. Couch 25k runs were on Friday, Monday, and Thursday (yesterday). Last Saturday I went kayaking and did the ropes course. Tuesday I went to Pilates with Angela, where my hip was making horrifying noises and gave me quite a lot of trouble. Wednesday is our SCUBA night, which burns a ton of calories. I also suffer from migraines. Over the past week, I have had no less than four. I woke up with one this morning as well. I have been burning through the Imitrex, believe me. I had ONE beer this week. My boss joked that maybe I was getting so many migraines because I wasn't drinking enough.
This is the only drink I had this week
So let's just say that tonight I am really not feeling up to being active. I want to have dinner somewhere nice, go on a stroll through town, then go home and watch a movie. If the hubs insists on doing something active, I am going to suggest that we go to the Caroline County Fair, where we can watch the Dress a Goat and Greased Pig contests. I'm pretty sure that they also have a rock wall on the fairgrounds, so if he wants to be active, he can climb that while I watch. Tomorrow, I'll be helping with setup for Fiber Fest and then hopefully we will be going down to the beach. Also on tap for this weekend: marshmallow making and rooster eating.
Well I can finally cross something off of my summer bucket list. Sunday I start on week 3 of couch25k. I planned to give it a shot, but not to push it if things started to hurt. The last thing I want is an injury that causes me to not be able to exercise at all.
I also signed up for my first 5k this week, on September 14th. I hope that I can get back into running. The truth is that I have a love/hate relationship with running. If I'm going through something, pissed off, need to think, whatever... I enjoy it. It's a good way to clear your mind.
Although I'm still trying to do a somewhat low-carb diet, it just isn't feasible for running. My body needs something it can easily convert into energy. So while I'm not carbo-loading, I'm trying to incorporate more natural and complex carbs into my diet (fruit, veggies and whole grain cereals like muesli). Now I just try to avoid bread and sweets whenever I can. However, I do have a stash of Sea Salt Soiree squares hidden for emergencies. Or Mondays. Or any day of the week ending in Y.
I haven't been keeping good track of my weight lately and obviously have missed weeks here and there. I'm up about 5 pounds from my pre-vacation weight, but I'll lose those 5 pounds eventually. Progress not perfection.
Jay and I took our second scuba class this week. We learned how to put the gear together and did some underwater skills. Mostly, we learned the ones that we already knew how to do from our trips with Cooly Dive and Poseidon. It's a lot easier mastering skills in a pool on your knees than when you're miles out to sea with an intense drill sergeant divemaster making you nervous! Not to mention possible large pelagic fish underneath the water waiting to have a nibble. Oh, and the somewhat rough seas we were diving in. Doing our certification dives in the quarry will be a piece of cake!
It really has me scratching my head over the girl in this photo:
This was on our dive to Cook Island to hang out with the sea turtles. This girl was supposed to be doing her first two open water certification dives. She had no clue what she was doing! The instructor had to ask her to set up her gear and then show her how to put it all together. Pretty much everyone in our class assembled their gear correctly the first time (after watching the instructor assemble his once).
So I would hope that by the time we're ready for our check-out dives that we'll know how to assemble our equipment!
So here are a few things from my 101 list that I could do without much effort... I may even try to swim 1000 yards before book club. Which will be at Clay Bakers, where I am planning to make Jay a new mug. So yeah. I could totally knock out two things today!
Complete the Couch 25K program
Sign up for a 5K race - then do it
Swim 1000 yards
PADI Open Water SCUBA diver certification
Send Aunt Nancy thank you gift
Send Chris and Sally thank you gift
Find a cool glass bottle to display my Whitehaven Beach sand
Spread some of Dad at Martinak State Park
Buy a brick for the FACES building
Eat a rooster that wakes me up too early
Make Jay a new mug
Send Renee and Joanne souvenirs from vacation
Make lemonade from scratch
Spend an entire afternoon reading in the hammock
Make that I could knock out THREE things. I just bought a brick for the FACES building in memory of my dad.
My girlfriend JT is spending the night tonight. Maybe I can drag her to some antique stores to find a cool glass bottle for my Whitehaven Beach sand. And maybe one to throw my seashells in too?
Tonight I did my third run of Couch 25k. I'm so glad that I have two days to rest... I pushed myself a little too hard tonight and am pretty sore.
But you know what? I'm not dead yet!
Sunday I'll start week two. Hopefully I'll be more patient next week and not push myself so hard.
This is my first day. Actually wasn't too bad.
My second day was awful... it was hot, I felt like crap and I was exhausted. I was just happy to survive.
Today felt like the best day and obviously it was based on my average speed and everything. However, my body is paying for it. I stupidly threw in a few intervals of higher intensity running when I shouldn't have. Consequently, my knees and feet aren't very happy with me at the moment. Progress not perfection. I need to remember this. I'm not going to be able to run a 5k tomorrow or even next week. I have to build up to it or I'm going to hurt myself (as usual).
Last night was our first SCUBA class and as luck would have it, we had our swim test. In order to get your open water certification, you're required to swim 200 yards (untimed and any style) and float/tread water for ten minutes. Thinking of my previous exercises of death in the pool, I thought "no problem." Hell, I was swimming 100 yards using just my arms and not kicking. I neglected to remember that the last time that I did exercises of death in the pool was two months ago. Yeah. Oops. So my bad-ass self decides to go into the locker room and grab my goggles so that I can show my 15 classmates (who have already started) what an awesome swimmer I am.
Did I mention that all 15 of us were also confined to two lanes because the college wasn't prepared for us? Talk about a total clusterf*ck.
By the time I re-entered the pool area, everyone had already completed about 100 yards of their swim. No big deal, right? I dove in. The water was as warm as bathwater. Gross. Right after I dove in, my band-aid started flopping around. Great. I'd just had blood drawn at the doctor's office before class, so I ripped off the band-aid and started swimming with the latex-cotton-mess in my fist. Not sure if you've ever swam with a closed fist before, but it's not too easy. I passed a few of my classmates, trying to make up for my time out of the pool and catch up... but not so easily done with my closed fist. On the start of my 3rd lap, I saw Jay coming towards me in the next lane (finishing his swim). I begged him to take my soggy blood-soaked band-aid. It took some convincing, but he's a pretty awesome husband.
I was finally free to use both my hands effectively.
About 100 yards into my swim, I started to suck air. The pool was too warm, I'd just eaten Chipotle, and I'd had an awful run the day before. I stopped trying to impress everyone and flipped on to my back. By this time, everyone was out of the water and watching the stragglers finish. Swimming on my back was too easy. I was trying so hard to get it over with that I wasn't paying attention and whacked myself in the head at the end of the pool. After that fiasco, I decided to watch where I was going so that I didn't run into any more walls. The problem is that I'm not very good at the crawl and am much better at the breast stroke. Which of course is slower and requires more energy. So everyone watched as I took my sweet ass time on the last 50 yards. But I refused to doggy paddle. And I passed the test.
So this week I've had two wins. I'll take them.
No big plans for this weekend, which is just what I need.
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