Perpetual Motion

I'm still trying to work on my running. I seriously lost some ground from all our vacations and, you know, having to share my blood flow and oxygen with another person. I had gotten up to three miles and now I'm back down to one. I was determined to run two miles this morning (this although I am now without an ipod since the iphone got sold and I thoughtlessly left my old ipod in Georgia). Yeah, I didn't run two miles. But it was such a nice day out and I was feeling good, so I ran the first mile and alternated walking and running on the second one. It's something.

John fixed our shower a while ago. Did I mention that? It was sort of anticlimactic since it needed cleaning to be really useable and we didn't clean it right away. But it is fully functional now and John wanted the downstairs bathroom cleaned and out of use so that it is one part of the flat we don't have to worry about. Well, I cleaned that bathroom today. Funny how much dirtier it gets when we use it all the time. There weren't any spider incidents.

Then I packed all my books in one suitcase. But John is undecided on whether we will actually take our books on the plane with us or ship them, so I might be repacking later. Still, they are off the shelf so it sort of seems like I've accomplished something.

Meanwhile Back at the Flat

I tried out a new running route today. I really like the park but I find that if I run too many laps in one place it is harder for me to be motivated to continue. Whereas if I run away from home and then have to run back that is great motivation to keep going. Especially when I will get cold pretty quickly if I stop moving!

So today I ran through the park, up to UEA, and around the lake. It went pretty well and I think it is about the same distance I've been running, but it was hard to tell because I got caught behind a group of elementary school children and that cost me a lot of time. There are also some hills which aren't fun to run on but provide an added challenge. And I am hoping that the fact that most of this run is on soft ground might help my shins.

After I got back home and spent a few hours thinking about it I finally cleaned the kitchen. It was a total disaster after last night's cooking adventures. Everything was covered in grease and there was Buffalo sauce spilled all over one counter and down the front of the washing machine (a great argument for not having laundry appliances in the kitchen). This is all not to mention the tremendous pile of dirty pots and pans. It took me over two hours but the kitchen is now as clean as it ever is. John went to school to work on some papers today and got home just as I was finishing up. Lucky boy.

Snow!

It actually snowed pretty much all day today. I went running in the snow this morning, which was mostly powdery and not too slippery.

Then John and I went in the garden to play in the snow this afternoon. John made a tiny snowman named George. And I made a snow cat.

Down Town

I went into town today to meet with Libby the librarian. I will be telling stories for America week in April, which is pretty awesome. We set up some more meetings to work on the Americans during WWII presentation that I will hopefully be taking to schools.

Then I went to Pilch, which is the sports store owned by Jarrold. It has finally gotten too cold for me to run in the cold weather running clothes I so cleverly bought on sale last summer. I have been making due by wearing a sweat shirt, but that hasn't been optimal. So, I got a jacket that the young man in the store assured me will keep me warm even though it's not very thick. Apparently just keeping the wind off is sufficient when you are moving around. I also got some running gloves because my hands were sweating in regular gloves and it is too cold to go without. And I got a skullcap for similar reasons, except having to do with my head instead of my hands. Coolest thing ever: the skullcap has a hole for my ponytail!

After I got home I practiced guitar for a long time. I did some work on my Wikipedia Song, because someday I'd like to make it more presentable. I wrote out the chord progressions and even looked up some chords in the book I got for Christmas. But then I realized that I haven't quite learned all the stuff I need to so I can make the song truly awesome, so it is still a work in progress.

I'm attempting falafel and couscous again tonight, but this time I bought the falafal pre-assembled. The menu:
couscous with bell pepper, onion, raisins, and seasonings
falafal balls
cucumber with houmous
olives with feta (just for me, John doesn't like olives)

Oh, and here is yesterday's fog. This is a view from the bedroom window which looks out the back of the flat.

Weird Things That Really Happened

First Weird Thing
John stayed up really late last night to watch the national championship game. Sometime after he finally came to bed I heard him say, "Hey."
I wasn't sure if that was just a random exclamation or if he needed something, so I asked, "Do you need something?"
John: "Yeah, I need you to grill those things."
Me: "???"
John: "I need you to grill those things we skinned."
Me: "zzzzzz"
John: "zzzzzz"
Later in the afternoon when he finally woke up he had no recollection of this conversation.

Second Weird Thing
I was expecting a call from Ancient House this morning about volunteering this weekend. I was running and listening to an audio book. (I have taken note of the recommendations, but am currently listening to a random book I downloaded to test out how Georgia Download Destination works.) This audio book has jazzy music between the chapters. My phone plays jazzy music when it rings. The call came and I just listened to it ringing thinking it was the end of the chapter in my book! Then, when the book came back on and it wasn't a new chapter, I realized what happened. I called back, found out they do need me this weekend, and went back to listening to the book. The chapter ended after another minute or so, and the music that came on was totally the same riff that is my phone ring. Different instrument, but same riff, I kid you not.

Polar Running

So, I took a little break from running while John and I were in Georgia to let my shins heal. I decided to break my running fast today even though:
1) I woke up dismally late because I have not been making a very serious effort to adjust back to England time
2) The weather widget on my home page said that it was snowing outside
and 3) In spite of my disbelief that it could possibly be snowing, when I looked out my window I did, in fact, see snow.



















Okay, it doesn't look like much, but it's the principle of the thing. It has to be pretty cold to snow.

Anyway, I went running. I've lost some of the ground I had gained before the trip home so I only made it two miles instead of three. And I think the only reason I made it that far was that I was afraid if I stopped running too far from home I would freeze.

I'm still looking for another good audiobook/podiobook to listen to. I downloaded one called Dark Matter that was read in a very boring voice and had, okay only one, grammar mistake in the first chapter, but come on.
This morning I downloaded Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World, thinking "what could go wrong?" It is read by a computer. I'm not even joking.

It looks like I need to install some things on my computer to download books from the Georgia Download Destination, but, don't worry, I'm on it.

Ahem. So, if you have any audiobook recomendations for me, please leave them in comments.

Oh yeah, there is also one more book review on my other blog. Not a British book. I bought it while I was at home because I'm ever-so-slightly a John Green fangirl.

Santa Pictures

Radio Broadland put up their pictures of the Santa Run. Unfortunately, there aren't any in which you can see me or John, but we were there! We have the Santa suits to prove it.

Look at the pictures.

First Annual Norwich Santa Run

John and I participated in a 2k run through the park this morning. It was sponsored by a local radio station as a charity event. All the runners were given Santa suits. We went to the park early to pick up our suits, came home to change, and then walked back in time for the run. We got honked at 3 times on the way to the park! Everyone loves Santa.

Even though I have been running regularly since July and John hasn't run regularly in years, he still beat me. Not that it was a competition.

Well, we had fun running with all the Santas.

Chaturanga Dandasana

I have gotten to really like running, to the point where I am kind of sad on the days when I can't run. The problem is that because of my flat feet, I get shin splints. I haven't been able to totally prevent them, but I avoid doing serious damage by taking days off when my shins hurt more than a little.

Yesterday was one of those days when I couldn't run. I did yoga instead. This turned out pretty well. My legs (which get stiff and sore in all kinds of places) felt amazingly good after my workout. I discovered some tight places that probably don't get stretched enough during running warm ups and cool downs. I even spent some time upside down, which is always fun.

But perhaps the funniest thing about my yoga routine is that I tend to try to do the same poses even when I haven't done yoga in a while. Chaturanga dandasana gets me every time. During my workout I may or may not actually be able to do it depending on how out of shape I am. Either way, I can hardly lift my arms over my head the next day. Running this morning was a pleasure. Washing my hair, not so much.

Blogs and Books

Since John and I are such big celebrities, we clearly need our own website. This is a project of John's. Not all the links are working yet, but you can read John's blog.

I've decided I really like the book I've been listening to while running. I found it amongst itunes' free podiobooks: Earthcore by Scott Sigler. This book was only published as a podcast. At first I thought, self publishing, probably means subpar quality. Actually it's quite good. It's no Great American Novel, but it is fun and I look forward to listening to it, which helps motivate me to run. I like audiobooks and I like free things, so I just thought I'd share!

Abundance

I did an abundance of running this morning. I was feeling pretty good at the end of my half hour so I did another lap which brings me up to about a three mile run.

I got an abundance of fun new things in town today. John decided (agreed) that I needed more warm clothes and the next guitar lesson book.

There was an abundance of rain which made both of us really glad we got new rain coats yesterday. We were surprisingly comfortable walking around town during the persistent downpour.

"The Foolish Frog" has had an abundance of views. About three times as many as the next most viewed video I've put on YouTube, "Mattie Groves," and nine times as many as most of the other videos. I can't figure out if people I know have been watching it over and over again, or if people I don't know are actually watching it.

Hitting my Stride

More and more I feel like I really live here.

I went for a run this morning for the first time since our move. Thanks to all the exercise I get as a consequence of not having a car I haven't gotten too out of shape. I was actually able to run for a full half hour, just like when I was in Athens. I even discovered that there are free pod casts on itunes, so I'm going to try those out for a while since all the audio books at the library are on playaways.

When I was stretching I noticed how dirty the rugs are. Our flat has all wooden floors, but there are lots of rugs covering most of them up. Since I was feeling especially motivated I decided to ride in to town and try to find a vacuum sweeper type thing. I went in two malls and one department store (without getting lost!) before deciding that I was not going to be able to find the one sweeper that seems to exist in all of England for any cheaper no matter how many places I looked. So I got that one and will hopefully have cleaner rugs tomorrow.

I have almost completed the beginners guitar book that I purchased at the same time as the guitar. Well, that is to say that I can play all the songs, but the interspersed chord lessons are not coming along quite as well. I have been forcing myself to spend most of my practice time on chords for the past few days and I am improving, but I also miss being able to feel my fingertips.

Possibly the best thing that happened today was that I was called about interviewing at Build-a-Bear. There is certainly no guarantee I will get the job, but it is a start. It wasn't until I applied that I remembered I applied to work for Build-a-Bear once before. When I was in high school and first started looking for a job I applied to work in their store in the Mall of Georgia (I think?). Anyway, Jeff had applied there not long before and been offered a job. He told me that in the interview they asked him if he ever lied. He said that he did. Everybody lies. They asked me the same question in my interview and I told them that I do not lie (I certainly try not to). I did not get hired. Perhaps this time it will be different.