Wednesday, May 28, 2003
Knitting Freak

Last night I finally finished the annoying handles for my felted bag! Now I just need to assemble the bag and felt it. Since I have training for my summer job tonight, I may not get to it until tomorrow night, but I know that by this weekend, I shall have completed this project.

I did get to visit a very nice club last night with my sister-in-law. The Pro Club is a real executive club where most Microsofties belong. They get free membership and all I can say is this is a fantastic perk! I would go nuts if I belonged to this place. They are huge and have every service known to man. Also their swimming pool is beautiful and everyone is quite friendly. I really enjoyed myself and tortured my sister-in-law by making her swim 6 more laps than she wanted. But it was good for her and she did so well.

Ta'ra
Monday, May 26, 2003
Climbing Freak

Yesterday after a beautiful ride through Magnolia and over to Alki, Stephanie convinced me to attend the Mary Meyer Climbing Clinic. Now I know what Stephanie loves about climbing! I sense another addiction coming on! The teachers said I was doing really good for my first time. There was only one climb that I couldn't make it to the top on and I thought it was HARD!

I made Destiny another mouse which I know she was secretly playing with. She pretended not to care about it when I gave it to her but when I watched her around the corner, she was playing with it! When she saw me though, she walked away like she didn't care. Stinker!

I'm 9 whole inches into my 26 inch long handles. Why oh why is this so hard for me? It's only 6 little knit stitches! I think it's boring me and that is where the difficulty lays. I'm going to make myself knit for 15 minutes a day on the handles until they are complete. Hopefully that will mean by the end of the week at the longest. I just can't take them any more and I really want to start on another project but I feel guilty with the handles hanging over my head!

It's Memorial Day here and yes you guessed it, I'm at work. It's hard to work when you know that everyone else is sleeping in, going to BBQ's and basically enjoying thier day off. But on the bonus side, it is quite quiet here and I have cleared a lot off my plate :)

Ta'ra
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Crazy for Tri!

D and I met up early this morning for a swim at the outdoor (yea!) pool and then set off on a long bike ride. Unfortunately the wind and torental rain kept up from fulfilling our 60 mile goal but we did get to stop in at REI for some retail therapy in the middle of our ride. Now, that is fun!

I've been busy making more mice for the Wendy Mouse-along and Destiny is loving it! I'm also working to finish up the extra long handles for my felted bag. Can't wait to felt!

Ta'ra
Friday, May 23, 2003
The End is in Sight!

It's almost the end of the week! Yea! I did post during the week but blogger seems to have eaten my words of wisdom.

It's been busy over here with movie previews (Bruce Almighty), knitting (Wendy's Mouse-Along), work (ughggh!) and American Idol watching. I was so excited that Ruben won! They are both great but Ruben was my favorite.

More bike riding planned for this weekend with the hopes of finishing my felted bag by Sunday. The handles are killing me!
Monday, May 19, 2003
Weekend Wonder

Another weekend, another bike ride. On Saturday, Diana and I rode hills until we thought our legs would shake apart. It was quite tough.

Then I moved on to knitting interests for the rest of the day! After attending a housewarming party, I made my way to Hilltop Yarn and Needlepoint on Queen Anne and participated in their anniversary sale. It was hard to contain myself but I believe I did quite well. I ended up spending $40 and saving $20. Not bad. The yarn owners are always so nice there and I signed up for "Knitting with Color". I can't wait to take the class but I'll have to since it's not until June 18th. Until then, I'm focusing on finishing some of my WIPs! I worked on my felted bag this weekend and added in the novelty yarn. I'm about 75% done and can't wait to felt the bag!

My knitting is getting more and more popular. My friends now bicker over what I'm making them next. Of course I've offered to teach them but they aren't interested. It seems they associate my love for them with my knitting for them. Well at least it's nice to be liked.

On Sunday, Diana and I did a 50 mile bike ride. On our way back, we notice a cute boy on the side of the trail with his bike upside down. We ride a bit further and Diana turns around and says, "Should we go back?" and I quickly nod and say, "I'm thinking so."

So we go back and ask if he needs any help while praying that he doesn't need us to do any bike repair because well we can't do any bike repair! He says he's ok, that soon his friend will notice he's gone and come back to help me. So we pedal off. Later we talk about cute boy and how cute he was and maybe his missing friend is cute too.

We finish our ride and chow at Subway. I think we each ate our sandwhiches in like 2 minutes. Diana goes to Starbucks for her blind date and I go home to take a hot bath. Well Diana's date is lame and never shows but what do you know? Cute boy and friend show up at Starbucks. Diana talks to them a bit but forgets to get their phone number. They are doing STP too and that could have been worked! So when she called me to tell me about her adventure, I was jealous but I got over it.

And now I just want to know, is it the weekend yet?
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Riding my bike to work

Yes, yesterday I rode my bike to work. Little did I know it was going to be 14 miles of PURE FUN! Well not exactly fun but still quite the story. I left my house at 7:30 a.m. and got on my way. It was a brisk morning and I did wish that I had more clothing on. Those bike shorts were not cutting it in the warmth factor! Well I quickly changed my mind about that and was quite pleased with the shorts. After climbing two grueling hills and wanting to go home, I was well on my way. I kept thinking that I must have mapped out the hilliest route ever! I quickly made my way past two schools and down a hill to Bothell-Everett Highway. I had to ride on that road for about three blocks. And you know those were the three quickest blocks ever! It's spooky out there. I then arrived at the safety of the Burke-Gilman trail and rode that for about 6 miles. I next had to depart from the trail and start another grueling and long climb. I *LOVE* hills! I eventually arrived at work around 9 a.m. I did create quite a stir with my bike and felt quite proud of myself all day. Then I had to being the ride home! Gulp! Actually it wasn't too bad at all. I rode the Burke-Gilman most of the way and even stopped by the library on the way home to pick up some books! Yea for me! Go Team!

Tonight I had STP training and guess what!?! We got to do more hills! I swear the hills have been having secret meetings on how to torment me! I will conquer them all though!

In knitting news, I am still working on my sock. I was happily knitting along last night when I noticed I was following the wrong set of instructions! Grrr! Looks like there is some frogging to be done.
Monday, May 12, 2003
What a weekend! I didn't get in the two days of biking but it was still quite busy! Friday night was lovely with a stop at the Nickerson Street Salon in Fremont and then Gelato to finish. Yum!

On Saturday, we went on a bike ride from the start of the Burke-Gilman trail in Ballard to a park in Woodinville. All in all it was 43 lovely miles. Well the last two weren't so lovely but I still enjoyed myself. I then traveled down to a bike blow-out sale and got a new biking outfit. It's lovely!

Sunday was Mother's Day which I appropriately spent with my Mother. We ate a huge breakfast at my Mom's favorite restaurant and then I spent the day with her doing my laundry and asking her to wash my car. She kept reminding me it was Mother's Day as she watched her taped shows of Dr. Phil and calling me into the room every few seconds to discuss the show. Now I'm back at work and trying to concentrate on all my duties.

In knitting news, I turned the heel in my first sock. I'm not sure if I'm doing it right but it looks right! I'll post pictures once I have it done.
Friday, May 09, 2003
You know you are getting quite serious about biking when you schedule two days of bike riding in a row! Yep, I've schedule rides with my buddies on both Saturday and Sunday, though I'm not sure how I'm fitting Sunday in. My mom wants me to spend the whole day with her. Now you might think that I don't see her that often but ummm I do! Let's see in the last week, I've seen her at the gym twice and once when I stopped by her house. So really she gets enough daughter time but it is nice to be so loved.

Knitting Front: Made Stephanie a coin purse. She said that I never make her anything and she does so love pink, so the coin purse was made. I'll be working on something more for her later but I needed to tame the savage beast for now. I also finished another dishcloth (pictures up soon) and worked up a swatch for my summer tank. It is going to be fantastically beautiful!

Have a great weekend!
Thursday, May 08, 2003
Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Do you ever have one of those weeks where you don't know where time has gone? I can't believe that it is Wednesday and I have nothing to show for myself!

I did get Mum's Mother's Day gift on Monday though. Boy did she luck out this year! Of course, knowing that I have already purchased her gift has not stopped her from calling me with more gift ideas. I swear she's almost as crazy as her daughter!

On Monday night, I made Julie (a co-worker) a very pretty little coin purse. She always oohs and ahhhs over my knitting so I thought it was time for a gift. While knitting it, I watched The Matrix to prep for The Matrix Reloaded. I believe I'm ready for some Matrix watching. Only 8 days to go!

I'm currently obsessed with the Adidas "7 Stages of Marthon" ad campaign. You can see it at the Adidas site.

Seven Stages of Marathon

1. Ritual
2. Shock
3. Denial
4. Isolation
5. Despair
6. Affirmation
7. Renewal

Those are my words of wisdom for the day sans the wisdom.



Monday, May 05, 2003
I did it! I ran the 2003 Vancouver 1/2 Marathon yesterday and while it was 13.1 miles of cold, wet weather I did enjoy myself. My friend Diana ran the first 6 miles with me before breaking away and running ahead. She muttered something about a shower? It was around mile 8 that I decided I wanted to go home and was done running. Unfortunately I was in Stanley Park and my hotel was about 5 miles away. So I decided I would just finish running. I next encountered THE HILL. The one that climbed over 500 feet in about 2 miles. Miles 8.5 to 10.5 were spent on the hill. At mile 10 I did a cheer and picked up a new running buddy. She said that her knee was killing her and she needed my "cheerful" attitude for the rest of the run. I was so glad to have a new running buddy. We jogged and walked the next two miles. At mile 12 though I encountered a rolling cramp in my right calf. It hurt so bad and I leapt into the air and yelled in pain. I jogged most of mile 12 in and finished in about 3 hours and 13 minutes of which I was pleased. I didn't achieve my goal of 3 hours BUT I did improve my time from the Seattle 1/2 Marathon. Whew! Now I have to start training for the TYR Triathlon in Portland, Oregon. I'm insane!

No knitting news this time, I was too busy with the X-Men 2 movie on Friday night and my race on Sunday to do much else.

Ta'ra
Friday, May 02, 2003

Last night I sewed up Krista's Tea Cozy and wrapped up her birthday present. I even did up some cute catnip toys for her two cats. Tonight is X-Men 2 at the Cinerama after Krista's birthday dinner and then off to Vancouver in the morning. It will be busy but fun! My sister-in-law and brother got tickets for the opening night of The Matrix: Reloaded. Can't wait to see it! We're going to the 11 p.m. showing which will be late but super fun!

On the knitting front, I've finished my first pink dishcloth and am working on my second. I love them! I did the first in garter stitch and this next one in moss stitch. Now I need to decide what to do for the third.

Ta'ra
 
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