Monthly Archives: August 2012

Cat

Caturday

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Thought I’d pop in for a quick Caturday post between workouts and work and teaching and getting ready for our “housewarming bbq” tomorrow afternoon.

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Many times if I enter a room and the cat is in there, she will immediately roll onto her back and meow at me.  Then she acts all upset when I go over and vigorously rub her belly, but I know that is what she wants or she wouldn’t do this ALL THE TIME.  It’s just ridiculously cute.  Stupid animal.

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Here she’s staring at me from the windowsill in her room.  Yes, we have so many rooms now that the cat has her own room.  Granted, we also put suitcases and some boxes and stuff in there (and there’s a trumpet now too) but we refer to it as the cat’s room.  This new house:  I feel like we have arrived.  It’s more space than I have lived in since I left my parent’s house, and it seems so incredibly decadent.  I mean:  three “bedrooms” (one master, one cat’s room, one music room), TWO ENTIRE BATHROOMS, a kitchen full of cabinets and counters, washer dryer on the same floor as the bedroom…the list goes on.  This house is amazing and possibly the greatest thing that has and will ever happen to us.  Sometimes I’m embarrassed to have to admit we are renting, but we just haven’t had the job security to feel like we should buy.  We may never be rich, but we aren’t beholden to the bank either, and that’s cool.  In a nutshell:  I love our new home and I’m okay with the fact that we don’t own it.

I went for a run this morning.  Tomorrow is a 9 mile run, so today was just a nice easy 3.5 miler.  It was more humid than I thought and I got home and was a little disoriented until I rehydrated properly.  After awhile I fixed myself a lovely “breakfast” of sausage, eggs, and an english muffin with jam.  It was phenomenal.  I have decided to embrace eating more grains again for awhile and see how that goes.  I think I am happier eating them.

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After I was done, I set my plate down and the cat cleaned it for me so I don’t have to wash it!  That plate goes right back on the shelf!

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Thanks fatness!

Anyways, how are you celebrating Caturday?

If you are new to blog giveaways, one thing to know is:  I’m not selling your information if you enter or anything like that.  Businesses like to send stuff to bloggers to try to get their names out there, and a great way to increase exposure for your company is to have a blogger write something nice about you (or bad, really, any exposure is still exposure) and then a giveaway is a nice way to get even more exposure.  So it’s a no risk contest, in case you were worried.  And there will be more free stuff soon, so if you like free stuff but aren’t interested in my current giveaway, stay tuned 🙂

Random thoughts

How did you find my blog?

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Since I’m a little tired (it is Friday, after all) I’ve decided just to share some searches people used to find my blog.  I know I’ve done this before.  I’m amused by it every time though.

cat ring bearer:  This concerns me if it’s a serious search.  Hopefully it wasn’t, but considering how many people I know that have used their dogs in their ceremonies, I’m guessing that the cat search was for real.  My recommendation is to not use you cat as a ring bearer, nor should you hire one.

work out stuff:  This is super specific.  I think the reason most people have trouble on the internet is they don’t know how to search properly.  It’s like searching for "food recipes" when you are hungry.

teaching cow images:  Is this about a cow who teaches or how to teach a cow?  Or what? 

(I found this on the internet)

sweat zits:  These are no fun.  When I was younger I thought in my 20’s I would stop breaking out.  I now know that will never happen.

dripping sweat women:  This is mainly what my blog is about, so I’m happy somebody found it!

creepy haircuts: I guess my haircut is a little weird?

epic failed de la planet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1:  No explanation needed.

hate ur trainer:  I get this kind of search a lot.  I don’t hate my trainer.  I really love working out with him.

wrong to objectify men:  Okay, but if it’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.  Let’s just not do any objectifying of women, though.  That is really wrong.

what to wear to a orchestra concert:  I would wear whatever you might wear to a nice dinner or night on the town.  You don’t have to dress up super fancy, but you can also.  Sometimes I wear jeans and a nice top, other times I wear a dress.

harrison ford chest hannah violin:  I love this combination….

sweaty tight shorts:  Obviously they wanted to see my 80s 5k picture.

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why do my arms look fat in photos:  Probably too much watermelon.

big bruise on knees from burpees: I guess this doesn’t just happen to me or else somebody wouldn’t have been searching for it?  Right?

strong bad cow lamp:  Thanks for breaking my cow lamp!

So how did you find my blog?  What brought you here?  Do you wish you hadn’t wasted three minutes reading this?

Random thoughts

Sock it to me

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A few weeks ago I blogged about how Mike made fun of me for wearing higher cut white socks to the gym.  He mocked me for an entire hour, and then since then has mocked me again for it on more than one occasion.  I decided to retaliate today, and wore these socks.

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I thought they were pretty awesome and that he would think so to, but I was mistaken.  He hated them more, more, he said, than the white socks. (Also pictured, Brooks Pure Cadence shoes, which now come in more colors, and I wish I had them in more colors, so if you want me to pretend to be your best friend, I’m a size 10, pink or purple please!)

So I’ve decided that my trainer is an idiot and has no idea what awesome is.  He may be more upset next time, because I plan to wear knee socks with ninjas on them.  (Yes, of course I’ll share a picture).  In fact, I may continue wearing knee socks every time I see him.  I actually really love knee socks, and they are similar to wearing compression socks, which you all know I love.  Other advantage:  could stop shaving calves forever.

(And, while my husband doesn’t much care for the compression socks, he does like a nice pair of fun knee socks.  He also likes when I shave my calves though.  Dilemma.)

(All of these sock ideas are inspired by Rose, thank you!)

 

Giveaways

Win a Pair of Travel Tumblers

I got the pictures of the travel tumblers.  They are so cute, I’m jealous that you guys can win these and I can’t 🙁

(Go to my original post here to enter to win, contest ends Monday 8/27 at noon CST)

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Seriously, aren’t they cute?  No guarantees they won’t make you crave cupcakes and whoopie pies constantly 😉

Oh, and may I say, one of the best things I have ever done in my life is join AAA and then put the membership on auto-renew.  My car wouldn’t start tonight after work and they came within an hour to help.  I probably call them about once a year, sometimes for me, sometimes for a friend (who honestly should get their own membership, but hey, at least I’m a good friend!), and that membership fee is money well spent!  I guess the wires going into the battery had corroded a bit, or, that is, the connections on the wires, and that was why it wouldn’t start.  The AAA guy cleaned it off and tightened some stuff and it started right up.  I was so relieved!

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Oh, and I took this picture in the waiting room at my school, while waiting for the truck.  It’s shark week, I believe?

Running

Rest Day

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I was going to run this morning, but I figured it probably was a better idea to give my legs, knee and hip a break.  And perhaps foam roll this evening after work.

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This is my foam roller.  That’s my foot.  Yeah, I need to vacuum.

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This is me trying to take a picture of myself using the foam roller.  Easier said than done.  And yeah, you already knew I liked purple, but I also really like pink.

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Unrelated but since I mentioned purple:  Ended up driving by this guy the other day.  Now he has a blanket!  Also I checked the price tag:  $2300.  Now I understand why no one has bought him for me yet.  I would put him in my backyard and visit every day though.  He probably needs a sombrero now.

Last night I met a blog reader for a walk.  She recently won a contest here and when I got her address I realized we were neighbors.  I figured meeting one another was inevitable so we decided to schedule it.  It was awesome to chat with her and hope to do it again soon—Hi Mandy!  The best part was we got to gossip about all the other blogs we read. And I learned all the dirt on the neighbors (well, some of the dirt, ha!)  Secret to meeting potentially creepy people who read your blog:  grasp phone firmly in hand at all times, ready to ask Siri for help at any moment.

(I imagine it would go something like this:

“Siri, can you call for help?”

“I do not see for help in your contacts.”

“Siri, call the police.”

“I do not see the police in your contacts.”

“Siri, call 911.”

*pause, nothing happens*)

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Self-portrait before the walk.  I don’t usually wear makeup and earrings for working out unless it’s at the end of the day.  I didn’t see any reason to take them off and then I thought, hey, I look at shiny and pretty and stuff, maybe I should do a self-photo shoot. (I was ready a few minutes early!)

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I find the greatest challenge is to figure out where to look.

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I was trying to make my forehead look less shiny.  At least it looks even bigger here!

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And here I just look like I’m on drugs…nice…

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This is not where we walked, but part of one of my favorite running routes—local readers probably recognize it?  Sadly you can see some of the trees are brown from the drought. This is getting ridiculous.

And now I’m off to teach for about six hours.  No big deal.

Deep Thoughts

Legitimately Frightening

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You know that I generally try to avoid politics, religion, and talk of money on my blog:  I want this to be a place where people feel comfortable reading about cats, running, music, and whatnot.  But I just wanted to vent for a few minutes, and if you have an issue with that, well, then, I leave you HERE with this picture, and I honestly don’t really care if you have an issue with that, because I feel like this is a very important subject.

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Yes, I’m talking about Todd Akin’s remarks about "legitimate rape."  I was under the impression that there was just one kind of rape:  the sort where a woman is forced to have sex against her will.  But evidently I was wrong.  There are all kinds—legitimate rape (the worst, I guess)…and then what?  He didn’t really clarify.  I mean, honestly, the whole thing is so awful to contemplate—to think that women are being told IF they get pregnant after a rape that obviously they wanted it to happen…

I just can’t wrap my head around it the idea that these men who are running our country think they can differentiate between forms of rape.  I’m pretty sure that if the basic definition of rape is there, it’s JUST AS AWFUL no matter what.  I’d like to think we can all agree that nobody should have to participate in a sex act that they don’t want to, but evidently we as a society cannot do that. 

This is why so many women don’t report rapes—they are afraid no one will believe them, or that it was their fault, or they are ashamed or scared, or many other reasons…we should be making it easier for women to report rapes and sexual assaults, not harder! 

And that’s what is just so upsetting about this.  That not everybody agrees that rape is wrong in all forms.  Then again, marital rape wasn’t a crime at all in the United States until the 1970’s, and that even today it carries a lower sentence than other forms of rape. 

What’s most frightening about all of this is that this "man", Akin, is running for Senator in my home state of Missouri.  And that he was projected to win until he "misspoke." 

This will likely be one of the few political blog entries I’ll write.  Let me just encourage you all to vote.  Are you registered to vote?  This election in November is very important.  Let us move forward as a society, not backwards.  Let’s continue to work towards equality for all people, including equality between men and women.