Tales From An Alternate Reality

LJ Idol voting closes today, and this week is a "team vs. team" result, where the team not in first place is going to lose one or two members. My team is fantastic, so I'm hoping not to lose anyone. Voting for all team members here would really help, if you're so inclined.

I think Mondays would go better if I weren't staying up late every Sunday trying to get those last few things done before the work-week starts. I usually get about 7 hours of sleep, max, and then there's an early meeting on Tuesday mornings. This may be why Wednesdays always feel like they should be Fridays.

I'm getting caught up on my f-list from late last week. I hope those of you who celebrate Passover had a good time gathering with friends and family. That's much better news than some of the weird political things I've come across over the last 3-4 days.

A main street on my daily work commute has "Road resurfacing" scheduled for the future. Threat or promise? The surface is pretty bad (decaying for years, and sadly I know this because I've bike-commuted on it too, and you get a really good look at the sorry state of pavement when you're biking). OTOH, there were suspicious markings on the pavement last week, and then the massive digging that foretells more sewer construction! That helps nothing. :(

ETA suckage: My bike is in the shop for an overhaul, targeted at going in late yesterday and coming back late today. But HalfshellHusband called to say that when the shop opened the package of replacement shifters, they found two right-side units and no left. Re-ordering. So... no bike until maybe Thursday? ARRRGGHHHH. I'll be running today, on what has become my once-every-two-weeks schedule in an attempt to rebuff the returning plantar fasciitis. *sigh*

Feeling kind of slow and foggy, after dreaming all night about killing zombies. At some kind of corporate camp or something. Thanks a lot, Z Nation! That's what I get for watching you before bed. :(

I went running last night before dinner. I've been going about every 9-10 days lately, as I feel my plantar fasciitis trying to come back (NOOooooooooooo!). I've been mentally running Led Zeppelin's Since I've Been Lovin' You in my head as my pacer, which is making me a little faster than some previous tunes. The first movement of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony has been my generic go-to pacer for years, though I hate that piece, and I've tried the middle movement of Khachaturian's Piano Concerto recently—better, and slightly faster—and a few other things. This Zeppelin tune keeps me fast enough that I've had to stop a few times from overheating (if only the temps were about 5 degrees colder!), but overall my times are better. Though the desire to lessen the foot impact (see plantar fasciitis above) changes my gait, and my hips are both feeling like crap today. Sore and stiff from front to back. Argh. Let's be old! \o/

I finished reading David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day, and I liked the second half of the book pretty well. The first half talks about speech therapy and his lisping problem as a child, and it implies that 1) lisping is just part of being gay! It's inevitable! and 2) all lispers will obviously become gay men, and girls never lisp, and by implication there are no non-effeminate gay men? IDK, this part was really starting to piss me off, and because he named names of other boys in 'lisp' therapy during his grade school years (including one boy whom he says came "mincing around the corner"), he is effectively outing a bunch of other kids without their consent who may or may not have actually turned out to be gay (or if so, chosen to be open about it), but also... what the hell?!? $%*^?!@*!#&!! Yeah, I'm still pissed off.

I'm currently reading Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, which I tried to get our son interested in years ago. It's never at the library, but I borrowed it via Kindle (not ideal, considering the number of interesting and weird pictures in it). It is not at all what I expected—the tone is completely different, and the construct of the story is more about an "ordinary" boy looking into his grandfather's past and uncovering a deeper and more sci-fi/fantasy type of mystery. Very hard to put down, which means I've gotten little else done this weekend but reading it and Idol entries, and exercising. Hey, better than a bad or aggravating book.

We're enjoying Second Chance on TV, and how nice to have The Blacklist back in all its cracktastic glory. But where are Ichabod and Abbie, and why do so many people rag on the humor aspects of Limitless (which are honestly our favorite parts)?

All right, time to bike soon. I got out last week on the bike path, and was able to go upstream for a change! (Only on non-holiday weekdays, since it's too crowded otherwise and the legions of the clueless are dangerous) Last Monday was a holiday, so I went downstream. We'd had rain for days, so there were puddles I had to go through because there was no "around." I'm hoping they've dried up quite a bit by now!

The Super Bowl is coming up, not that I really care, but... didn't that used to be held around the last weekend in January, up until recently? It's in February now, and I'm not sure why that changed.

I was out bicycling early enough on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to keep from overheating (highs of 96-102 all three days), and Sunday I actually ran all 5 of my target miles—for the first time in a month. It'll be heating up again midweek here, but despite last week's awfulness, it has been a fairly mild spring compared to the usual.

The side-effects of losing the Whale-cat have become really evident over the last year. There are multiple squirrel families here now (one over my home office, where I hope the skittery sounds I hear on the roof are... anything but rats, really), and a lot more birds in the backyard. The Whale would be outside much of the day and all night, and his presence clearly was noted. But now? Our current kitty doesn't seem to want to go out much during the day, and is only threatening to string, rubber bands, and biteable pieces of paper.

So, last week we had a sudden influx of Northern California magpies in the backyard. These are plump, large-ish birds with pretty coloring, and they soon clustered at the top of the decorative fountain and started yakking:

Bird 1: What do you suppose this is?
Bird 2: Looks like a very small set of streams. Strange.
Bird 1: That's what I was thinking. My feet are certainly wet.
Bird 3: But what's the rest of it? These aren't rocks or pebbles. I don't know what they are...

At this point, the cat raised her head and spotted all of this going on outside. So, like any pet owner, I tried to make the situation worse:

"Look at that! It's happening right in your own yard, and what are you doing about it? Huh? They're out there stomping around like they own the place, and they're touching your stuff!"

The cat just looked aghast, which totally made that worth my while. ;)

In other news, I've finished Egg And Spoon, and have started The Lost Boys Symphony. TV-wise, we're re-watching Fringe (and I'd hoped to get my son interested, because WALTER! But he hasn't taken the bait). We're also giving Breaking Bad a chance, and wow—that pilot episode was genius. I'd ordered it via Netflix years ago, but HalfshellHusband auto-vetoed it on arrival as he was going through cancer treatments himself and just was not in the mood for that plus the show being centered around drugs.

Moviewise, we tried out Welcome To The Punch via Netflix streaming, mainly for the cast (James McAvoy, Mark Strong). Good, mindless entertainment. The visuals in the first 10 minutes are striking—great use of light and color, very clean-looking. That was one of the things I liked about the middle of John Wick, too—beautiful filmwork in an unexpected setting.

All right, back to work. Hope you've all been doing well, and have either vacationed or are looking forward to one over the summer!

I can't believe the weekend is over already. Feels like I spent the entire thing doing chores, and still didn't finish all the ones I intended to. PorchSpiders:1, Me:0.

OTOH, two hours of unplanned yardwork both Saturday and Sunday. That's a big part of where my time goes. :(

For some brain-glitchy reason, I went out on Sunday morning and ran in my everyday shoes with the orthotic inserts rather than my running shoes!!! They're both Asics, so I must have gotten confused. Also, morning. \o?

Luckily enough, no injuries or major issues. Possibly even good, other than further pounding those poor inserts (which are overdue to be replaced). I ran 4.7 of the targeted 5.0 miles, with a couple of stops in the last mile. I wish I didn't overheat quite so easily.

In long-term planning, I should be figuring out when/if we can go anywhere this summer and to where... except that the kids' internship/volunteer schedules still aren't squared away. My husband says, "Probably late May" for our son. Given that school ends on June 4th, that is really unhelpful!

All right, back to the grind. I hope you had a more exciting weekend than I did...

It's hard to believe it's the weekend again, and that it's already half over. The week was a blur, with too much going on at the office (still) and trying to get my Idol entry finished during the work-week (plus writing an extra entry in a bid for immunity). I thought about a more dramatic approach to this week's topic, but the lighter entry had a coherent idea as opposed to "Let's start writing and see if this goes anywhere." The week also featured two early morning meetings, and the coming week will have one by phone every day until our problem goes away or we give up. Oy.

I normally run before work on Wednesdays, but haven't done that since before Christmas (the morning meetings have collided). I also have been running a mile farther. Thursday, I thought I'd try running near the office, which I last did a year ago-- once. The omens were not good: my GPS complained of low batteries as soon as I turned it on (after hoodwinking me with a "Charging complete" message a few weeks before), and my decision to use the accumulated podfic time as an estimate was foiled after multiple miles because ITS battery died too. This route starts out on the office back forty, and you can connect with a bike path. The path continually forks off toward housing developments, so it's hard to get distance. It also has a lot of modest ups and downs. Summary: I get tired much sooner than while running in my flat neighborhood, and I feel like a wimpopotamaus. Plus, I got lost trying to find the shortcut from the greenbelt into the property near the back of the office's acreage. It's a pie-shaped area, and it's easy to get disoriented.

But later that night, I used a map app to trace the approximate run, to check the distance. It was better than I thought. That just might encourage me to do it all over again. o_O I honestly haven't run much near the office since I got plantar fasciitis. It's hard to find enough blacktop, and concrete is hard on my feet. Running now has a lot of rigid requirements, I'm afraid. :(

Last weekend, I put away indoor Christmas (and cleaned my daughter's room, as she was out of town and I couldn't take it any more). I also gave the vacuum cleaner a 'haircut' (to remove all of my daughter's hair that was wound around the sweeper part). Ugh. Today, I finished boxing up all the outdoor Xmas lights, which is a chore. I did some pruning and more yard cleanup, which never ends. :(

We watched Good Will Hunting with the kids, thinking my daughter would like it. I'd forgotten how good that movie was, and I'm still impressed by the script. HalfshellHusband and I are about halfway through Good Enough, in which I don't much like Julia Louise Dreyfus' character, but get a kick out of James Gandolfini. Gone too soon... :(

Just now, there was some mystery drama in the backyard. I heard an animal shrieking, and a small 'thump' sound. Possibly an owl catching something? But a few minutes later, skunk stink started leaking into the house. I'll have to look tomorrow and see what might have happened. :O

The subject above tells my current state, with bedtime approaching. This feels like a repeat of last week's entry, but the sore back has the same source: yardwork and pruning. Roses are just too far below waist height. :(

Let's pretend I'm not a couple of days late with this already. ;)

Our trip back from Oregon was nicely uneventful until we were rear-ended at a stoplight about 10 minutes from the house. The driver of the sedan crumpled her hood, and our SUV's rear bumper needs to be replaced, but no one was hurt.

New Year's eve, we started watching Goldeneye until my son decided he was out of bedtime. Then my daughter and I watched Les Mis, which was not my cup of tea but was bonding time well spent. My daughter really likes that movie, though she told me she didn't like the beginning much. That turned out to be the whole first hour! Overall, too much recitative and too little melody for my tastes, plus obviously a very grim story. Also, I think Helena Bonham Carter might have been better off in her Merchant-Ivory days than this ongoing "loony hag" phase she's been stuck in ever since taking up with Tim Burton.

New Years' Day, I watched the Ducks cream Florida State in the Rose Bowl. There was a point late in the third quarter (after cascading disasters and a 27-7 streak by the Ducks) where Florida just looked like they wanted to go home... but sadly, had to stick around until the end of the game. Yikes.

I've also been trying to match my impromptu 5-mile run from last week. I've made it 4.6 miles and twice 4.5 miles, but not the whole distance. On Thursday's attempt, the back of my right thigh tightened up and started to ache. By evening, HalfshellHusband had to pound on it with his fists. It's the only way to get those muscles to "let go." I don't know why it happens, but it does.

I haven't biked outside since the Sunday before Xmas. One day was due to rain, but the rest, it's just been too freaking cold. Biking at or below 50-degrees is pretty much misery for me, and as boring as the garage is, my DVDs are better than being out in the frigid wind and temperatures. Today? I might be running again, if it doesn't warm up more. I have to be out biking by about 2:00 - 2:30, or I run out of daylight. Winter is the pits. :(

In other news, we have recently discovered Tiny House Nation on Hulu, and HSH and my son and I watched a couple of episodes last night. I couldn't live in any of those ultra-small spaces unless I was by myself, but I love seeing how cleverly the designers use and transform space.

While on vacation, I zipped through a Jack Reacher novel (The Affair, which offers the backstory on how Reacher wound up leaving the army and roaming the country), and more importantly, I finished a book I've been borrowing for about two years: Three Bags Full. That one involves a herd of sheep solving the mystery of how their shepherd was murdered, and it's delightful. There's the clever Miss Maple, the brave Othello, and—my favorite—Mopple the Whale, the "memory" sheep. Mopple reminds me of Shirley from the Shaun the Sheep videos, although half the farm does not disappear into his wool and fatness. The sheep see everything from a "sheep" perspective, which is what makes the story so interesting and also results in amusing misinterpretations of various events.

Work starts on Monday, and Idol started again yesterday, so I need to get back to the writing. I hope you and yours have been enjoying your holidays, and that the New Year is better for all of us than the last.

ETA: Our daughter just phoned us from her room upstairs to ask what her uncle gave her for Christmas. Kids these days!!!

Apart from the endless work overage, I spent late last week trying to write something for Idol and just being frustrated. I was looking to write fiction, but didn't really like the prompt, and then Saturday I was talking to my daughter about my mom's experiences in medical school, and thought "Oh! Duh..." So, it's done and posted.

An article I read yesterday in Wired inspired me to try writing tweet-fic, so I began a questionable experiment in that yesterday...

I'm off this week (finally! Thank god!), which lets me rework my exercise schedule to what it used to be before working from home was banned. I biked on Monday (without the horrific weekend crowds on the parkway), and ran on Sunday. It has been so long since I ran near the end of the day rather than before work. I'm not a morning person at all, so it's been more like a chore than a pleasure, lately. Sunday, the running was actually comfortable (I'd forgotten what that was like). I got to the end, and looked at the time and thought "Meh." I'd seen that number a lot over the last few months. Later, I remembered that I've only seen it during runs where I've had to walk part of the way. So, YAYYY!

The whole family watched Dead Poet's Society last weekend. Lots of sad thoughts about Robin Williams, and admiration for the job Robert Sean Leonard does in that movie. The real tragedy is realizing that the overbearing father who destroys his son also loves him. It's very true to a the mistakes real people make, which makes it more awful.

Traveling tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving, American friends!

(Apologies for random Marcy Playground, and that's not even one of the songs I particularly like.)

So, the Oregon Ducks are playing right now, but I can only catch the score updates because it's being shown on the "Pac12 Network." That is an "extra" cable channel that ESPN sells certain games to after buying up all the broadcast rights to make it hard for network TV stations to air the games. A cable channel we don't get, obviously. Go Ducks!

I'm finishing reading up all the Idol entries, because I think voting is due around 8pm EDT today. My entry is here, and this was the first Intersection of the season, so I partnered with my husband, rayaso, whose entry is terrific. I may take a 'bye' for this next round, since I'm behind on getting actual stuff done at home, but my husband is already madly working on what looks like something evilly hilarios, as usual. :D

I've heard this rumor that winter is coming early to certain parts of North America? It's more brutally hot this week than last in Sacramento. We've been pushing 100-degrees these last few days, and yesterday's bike ride wiped me out for the rest of the day. No major outside time planned today, but I'll try to ride early tomorrow and maybe get some yardwork in. That last part will depend on how the ride goes. Ulhhhh. I ran on Wednesday morning, after skipping last week (raw spot on the heel from hiking at Yosemite the weekend before). Argh! One of the reasons I try to run at least once a week is to keep my feet in shape, by which I mean... not letting the callouses heal enough that I get blisters. Stupid blisters! Now I'm sporting bandaids. :(

So, weekend plans? In nicer weather than here? :O

I ran this morning, without incident. \o/ Didn't run the whole distance (getting up early to run sometimes means being too tired to run), but 3.5 miles of the 4 is good. No falling. However, I must remember that neighborhood garbage pickup day is not the ideal day for running. Gads, the smells!

I was very surprised that Crimeans had voted to be Assimilated into Russia, before I realized that the ballot was of the form, "Die" or "Be Killed." *sigh*

In Soviet Russia, Vote chooses you!

My son's one comment very early on, though, was that Jasper Fforde had it right all (the Thursday Next books are an AU that happens after a second Crimean War). Let's hope things don't lead to that.

What a week. We're in that windy Spring phase where it's hard to bike outside. I biked Sunday, went to the gym Monday and Tuesday, and had to abort biking on suddenly-windy Wednesday (yesterday). Fine—I decided to head home a little early and go running instead. I got home, got dressed, did the 7-10 minute warmup walk, and then started running. At that point, something strange happened.

I have gone through this sequence, in this same part of my neighborhood, at least 40 times. Yesterday, I ran about 5 steps and then suddenly my legs cut out. It was as if someone hit the "kill" switch for them. My legs just collapsed from the ankles upward, and I fell. OUUUUUCH! Scraped up my hands pretty good, and a little of my knees. I rolled toward the curb and eventually got up, and walked around for about a mile or so and then home. Once you stop being a kid, you really aren't used to falling anymore, and it hurts! It's also much more embarrassing.

But the main thing is, I don't know why that happened. It's the type of incident that drives you to Google unsettling phrases on the Internet, and most of all, it makes me nervous about the next run (whenever that is).

This happens in nightmares all the time (God, the number of dreams I've had where my legs don't work and I have to crawl), but I've never had it happen for real. Ugh. Is this the future, my body slowly betraying me as the years go on? Oh, who am I kidding—in an abstract sense, it always is! Just usually later, and in slightly different ways. :(

Other news: signups for therealljidol have been extended to next Monday, if you were on the fence about trying it out. The first topic is likely to go up tonight, though, so don't be caught unaware!

Reading: I am farther into all the books mentioned last post, except that I left out Anansi Boys. I'm really enjoying it, and it wasn't at all what I expected. I've read Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and Neverwhere (I actually liked the former better than the latter. So unusual, and yet, so much pathos!) This new one has been fun. It's also due in two days, so I need to pick up the pace.

Watched The Woodsman earlier this week. Disturbing but also very good (not just for Kevin Bacon—Mos Def impresses me more all the time). Also saw the first episode of Cosmos, which was awesome. This is where CGI really goes nuts. I still can't figure out color is so beautiful and serene. Regardless, I still feel bad for Pluto. I doubt that will ever change.

So, is it actually Thursday? Because this week has really dragged. Like my bruised palms across brutal blacktop. :(

which planet is my favorite. Saturn has those rings, which I've always loved, but Neptune's