Starting today, we begin training for a half-marathon.

It's a marathon!  OK... it's a 1/2 Marathon.  That's 13 miles.

OMG. What have I done? I must be crazy. You’d have to be crazy, right? Well, what’s done is done.

I signed up to run/walk the 2011 Pittsburgh Half-Marathon.

I’m excited. I’m freaked. I’m nervous – already?!? FCOL the race is 8 months away. I can do this, right? Right!

OMG – what have I done?

I’ve never done anything more than a 5K.  I haven't even done a 10K yet. Why am I doing a ½ Marathon?

I blame Kristin.  It's her fault.    :-)  One of my high school alums in The Burgh is doing it and we’ve been talking about it (via FB and e-mail) so I thought I would give it a shot. I currently can walk a mile in about 2 min. I don’t jog.  Not even a little bit.  The last time I ran, I was dreaming I was being chased.

I’ve got all sorts of training materials to help me get up to jogging – books, podcasts, e-newsletters, couch-to-5K/10K podcasts, nike sport fob (whatever that thing is called)– but I haven’t begun to use any of it. AT ALL.

The last 2 5Ks I signed up for, I slept in and skipped. (LOSER)

So, the deed is done.

No more excuses.

No more slacking.

Starting today, we begin training for a half-marathon.

Now, where did I putting my shoes?

Brrrr ... Is it Winter already?

My company moved into a new office building. It's newer, prettier and has better electrical and A/C system than the old building. In the new building I get my own office. I don't have to share my office space with another employee. If our company grows, I may need to share the space but I think that'll be a long while off. The bad part? It's really cold. I mean really cold in our offices. I have a clock on my desk that has a thermometer in it. The temperature fluctuates between 67-F and 70-F.  When it's 80 or so degrees outside that's pretty darned cold.  I thought about burning a fire in my office but I don't think my boss or building management would appreciate that very much.  ~:-)

So, I've been thinking about ways to keep warm. I think tomorrow I may wear one of my hats to the office. I'm trying to decide which one to wear. What do you think?

Everyone thinks the bobble on this hat is a pin.  It's actually a Christmas ornament that I sewed onto the hat once I had finished it. 

I like this hat but it is a little snug.  Plus I think it would squish my hairdo and I'd have really bad hat-head all day.  Also the pom pom on it has gotten smooshed and I can't get it to fluff back up.  I tried washing and drying the hat but it hasn't popped back yet.  May be I'll make bigger pom poms next time.

The hat is more comfortable.  I tried to take a pic so you can see the flower pattern but I couldn't get the angle just right.  I crocheted this three small flowers and then sewed them onto the hat.

Here's a close up of the flowers I took for one of my other blog entries.  They're pretty cute.  I think I'm going to use brighter colors next time.

Knit-Crochet-Pray

I'm very excited.  I wrote up a short proposal to the head of the mens/womens ministry for a project that I wanted to do this winter at my church.  I proposed to them that the men/women in the ministries ban together and make hats and scarves this fall and then donate them to the Echo Food Bank.  The Food Bank is one of the philanthropies that my church supports.  Last year I made several scarves and delivered them to the Food Bank myself.  I think I made 15 scarves total.  It was really great feeling.

My proposal was that men (yes some men do knit or crochet :-) ) and women would knit or crochet scarves and hats together but separately.  We would work on them together in spirit but wouldn't necessarily get together for stitch-n-bitch sessions.  Well, they liked my idea so much they said i could do it but only if we opened it up to the whole church.  Ack!  OK.  I can do this. 


I tried to come up with a witty name for the project.  It took me a bit but I decided on

Knit - Crochet - Pray

A neat little play/pray on words :-)

So, now I'm collecting free patterns from all over the Internet and getting my sign-up and informational flyer ready.  I'll be at a table before and after church today hoping to get some people signed up.

Wish me luck and pray for success.

1 Step Closer

So, I did it. I finally sold my BMW. I took it down to Carmax (www.carmax.com) and got it appraised a week ago. It wasn’t a bad estimate at all. The appraisal came in a little below my note but still a good offer. So, I got a cashier’s check from the bank and went back today. Part of me is sad that I got rid of it and part of me is glad about it. I’m sad because it was a pretty car and a nice ride. I’m glad because the debt and the maintenance cost are too much for my budget. I’m working towards being debt free. I’ve been making double payments on my car note and another debt. That just takes so much out of my budget. So, the really great thing about this whole step is that I am now 1 debt closer to being debt free. It’s very exciting.

Here are some photos of my beloved BMW.

Rippling Along

I've got a good chunk of the ripple afghan started.  I decided to use several different skeins of yarn I have.  I am creating it in rows of 3.  In between each color I'm putting three rows of cream colored yarn.  Not much else to say about it at the moment.  Here are some photos.