Through the ages

I have a photo album in iPhoto of all the pictures of Amanda and Kelly and I. Years ago we developed the "hold the camera out in front of your face" method of taking pictures. We've dabbled with timers on digital cameras but always returned to the tried a true method. These were fun to look at again. Bonus points to the first person who can explain why Kelly is almost always in the middle.

Is this the summer of 2003?

Apple picking in 2004. We didn't get a picture of all three of us in 2003?

Taste of Minneosta, 2005. I didn't go in 2004. There was the whole Africa-Florida-Pennsylvania drama.

Must be 2006. Amanda, when did you move?

Kelly and my birthday celebration, 2006.

Apple picking, 2006. I love that picture because I'd been running for a while by that time and I felt really skinny then. Seeing that picture just reminds me.

The bachelorette party.

And we know where this one was taken.

Meh

I went out tonight with a guy. Whom I asked out. But just out to dinner. I had a really nice time. Why do I feel so disappointed? What was I expecting? I really did enjoy myself. We went to Punch Neopolitan in the Highland Neighborhood (for those of you who know St. Paul). We talked forever. The waiter kept coming by to take our order and we kept forgetting to look at the menu. Finally I just ordered a Pizza Margherita because I know I like it. And the pizza and the salad was really good. And we had a nice time.

Here's the history of this night. This guy volunteered at the Science Museum with the team I worked with. As those kids are finishing up and summer is starting, Chris was done volunteering for us, and I was done working at el museo. So he said that we should keep in touch. No one knows why I didn't notice a guy my own age actually volunteering for something and put a little more energy there earlier, but I'm stupid and I was in grad school. In the middle of the summer this is looking pretty interesting so I shot him an email and suggested going out. No reply. So I just imagined that's the end of that and I got over the disappointment.

A few nights ago I was talking to one of my only really good friends who is a guy. And he pointed out that suggesting getting together is just not enough for some guys. Some guys and more than a few girls I think require firm plans to accept. Otherwise they just don't get it. This friend suggested I write back with a more direct approach. The email I sent said, "Do you want to go out to dinner on Sunday night?" Which obviously worked out.

There were a lot of questions. Is this a date? Is this just a guy I could be friends with? What the hell is happening? So I dressed date-casual, meaning I wore carpis and a cute top, but he's seen me dressed at least that nicely before for work, so I could blow it off if he came in some scrubby t-shirt or something. I also straightened my hair.

The verdict: I don't think it was a date. He did buy me dinner. There was not any real flirting. I had a really nice time. What does the future hold? I'm adopting a wait and see attitude. It could turn out we're a match made in heaven. It could also turn out that he's a got a rich computer programming friend. I'm just sayin...

Congratulations Kelly and Eric!

Enjoy my favorite pictures from your wedding day!

PS - Kelly, sorry about the one of you and Eric, the red eye did funny things to you there. I still think it's a nice picture.

Why I'm the Slowest Person on the Planet (and I can't stand it)

I ran outside this morning, apparently something I should never ever do. I ran my usual route, thinking I was trying hard. No. I was still running like 11:40 miles. Seriously. Who's bummed? I'm not sure if it's the heat or the fact that the run ends with two very large hills that I try to save a bit for. I've run this route slower, although not much slower really. I'm thinking I'll run at the Y tomorrow morning and see if that improves my times at all. Maybe it is just the hills that are slowing me down.

By the way, got my phone bill. I pay for both my parents cell phones. It's the one thing that makes me feel like an adult and a contributing member of the family. There were like $5.00 of service charges, not a lot, but I did notice. All on Dad's phone. Two were 411 calls and one was a call to Jamaica that lasted less than 60 seconds. No, really. Jamaica.

People People Everywhere and When Did It Get So Hot?

After last night's success with the bus, it seemed like the best option for my outing to the great Minnesota get-together today. The bus schedule is awfully tight on Sundays. Like the bus I needed to transfer to was pulling up at the same time the bus I was on was pulling up. I about knocked over a few people in my hastened departure from the bus. Luckily, people understand things like that and have some patience with it. After a fairly easy bus ride (on three buses) to the fair, I realized it was both crowded and even hotter than I had anticipated. Good thing I was emotionally prepared.

People, people, everywhere. I wonder how many of them there were. Seemed like the whole state.



Much to Amanda's surprise (and kind of my own) I agreed to ride the "space needle". It's a terrifyingly named elevator that lazily raises and rotates, gets to the top and then descends and rotates in a "my grandpa used to take me on this ride" kind of way. It's still really high, but I chose not to focus on that. You can see exactly how many people were at the fair. You can also see where they parked. If you're careful you might catch a glimpse of Minneapolis.





We went to the Health building. I got myself screened for diabetes since there's a history of it in my family and I haven't been to a doctor in about eight million years. My non-fasting blood sugar was 101, which is almost perfect. Yay me! Amanda got her hearing checked. Before they could run the test, they had to find part of the equipment.

No, seriously.


Normal, my foot!



Amanda didn't like that mirror because it swallowed her feet. I think she's lucky, I have twice the normal number of feet now. Thanks. If you're not from around here, you wouldn't understand what this food is. Trust me; I've lived five years and I still don't get it.



And now, for the animals. Oh look, a horse for Amanda to play with.


Let's bring on the fowl. This was the blue ribbon ballet chicken.


Is it wrong that this chicken reminds me of that lady from the view?



That's how my hair looks in the morning too. And no one knows why there are chickens and turkeys with no feathers on their neck.



Or why Amanda thinks it's a good idea to let a duck play with her bag. Yes, I did say "let".

When we walked away, she grabbed the handle and said, "it's wet" in a distressed manner. I was not sympathetic. Amused, yes. This picture just doesn't do justice to how big these cows really are. Simply amazing. I'm wondering if they're the ones who get rBGH.

Oink.


Perhaps the best part of the day was when Amanda assured me that I would never have to go on any of these rides to be her friend.

It was a really fun day. I had to explain to both my parents "what do you do at the fair"? We don't have fairs like that in Ohio. Or at least, not that people actually attend. The bus ride back was equally tight, although less life threatening to the passengers around me when I tried to meet the connecting bus. When I was standing on a corner in St Paul waiting for the 21 (for more information on the 21, see Kelly's blog and this post in particular) the sign on the bank told me it was 92*. I had only expected mid 80's. No wonder I was so hot. I'm amazed at all the people I saw wearing jeans. They had to be about dead. I wonder how many people get heat stroke at the fair each year. Do they keep statistics on that type of thing?

The Bachelorette Party

The rules for Kelly's bachelorette party (ten points to anyone who can correctly spell that word, Firefox doesn't even know it) were simple:
1. No strippers, male or female.
2. No drinking and driving.
3. No police involvement of any kind.

I think we did well for ourselves. Instead of a normal gift, Amanda and I got Kelly this great tiara. Honestly, we had to pick the blue one. The other ones were just pretty enough that someone would have thought Kelly was serious. Then, we got on the bus to go to uptown.



I was there too. At our favorite place in uptown, Bar Abilene, there was good food, good desert and even better drinks. Thanks also to Kate, our serve for not bringing me a third margarita.


We went to a different bar and played pool. Kelly will tell you that she has much more talent than Amanda and I, and that she "schooled us". While I don't deny the talent thing, Kelly will leave out the part where she sunk the 8-ball on her third or fourth shot, so she lost too.


We all safely took the bus home. Kelly, like a good sport was still wearing the tiara, although I would have excused her if she chose to take it off on the bus ride home.


And here we all are.

I ran yesterday, we'll see about today

I ran yesterday morning before work. 5.6 miles. No, seriously. I ran these miles in 11:27 or so. I think I ran some of them faster, and the last one, with a monster hill, at a much slower pace. Now I'm spending some time cleaning up the joint. Originally a wild bachelorette party had been planned, and then life happened to one or two of us. Now we're meeting here, going to a great restaurant and having good food and even better margaritas. I'm excited.

After I finish organizing my house, I'm planning on going to the Y and lift weights. My butt is still sore from the workout I did on Thursday, but it felt so good it seems like I should do it again. I'll also let you know how the organizing goes.

That's no so bad

I was feeling pretty bad about how slow I just ran (see the post from like five minutes ago) until I realized that at this time in 2006 that's how slow I ran a 5K, and now I can sustain that pace for much longer than 3.2 miles, and if I'm only running 3.2 miles, I can go faster.

I'm feeling a little nervous because my dad is coming up and he's going to see me run a 5K in a couple of weeks. I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to do better than I did in the milk run, but also feeling like I'm not going to improve from three weeks ago nearly as much as I did from one year ago. We'll see.

Miss me?

I meant to run this morning. But then I forgot to set my alarm so I ran tonight. I ran 4.8 miles in the slow as hell times 56:30 or 11:45 miles. Apparently, I haven't run like this in a while. I also think I haven't run at night in a while. Who turned the sun on?

I'm doing so so with the whole "getting up early" thing. Monday morning I was still sleeping off a migraine. Tuesday was wildly successful. This morning, again, forgot the alarm. I'm optimistic about tomorrow though. If I get up early and go to the Y (because there's about zero chance I'll want to run tomorrow) then I can be at work early which has the added benefit of I get to leave work early.

I'm thinking I need a new hobby or something. Maybe I should play my guitar again. Because I get home from work and I don't have a whole lot to do. Right now I'm re-reading Harry Potter And the Order of the Phoenix. I've wanted to re-read it ever since I saw the movie. I'm glad I did it in that order though, otherwise all the little discrepancies would have driven me up a wall. I've also thought about taking up drawing. If I get really ambitious I could paint my bedroom. It really does need to be done soon, before the heat gets turned on.

I always think each home improvement project is going to be simpler than the last. I hold up the hallway, which may or may not have been an improvement over the bathroom as an example. I sort of fear the bedroom anyways because I have a lot of stuff in there and I don't exactly know where to move it. That almost has to be a one day job, where I wake up, move everything, eat, paint a coat, eat, paint the next coat, eat, and then move everything back. Although all the the difficulties in each project were not things I foresaw. I'm a little scared to think what could go wrong in there.

Milk Run 2007

I ran in the Milk Run this morning. I took off about 3:00 from last year's time. I ran about a 33:15, I'll know for sure when the put the results up tonight. That's about a 10:30 mile.

I started out a little faster than I normally run. I think last year I started off too slow. And then the race route climbs. And climbs. And climbs beyond what is really normal for any race, especially in a place as flat as the twin cities. Mercifully the two mile mark is about the same place as the top of the climb. The last mile is basically down hill. I was really pleased when I got to the two mile mark at 22:00. That's two 11:00 miles, which is really fast considering who little I'd trained and the terrain. I was relieved when I could turn on the gas a bit for the down hill part. I was relieved I had anything left.

My original goal had been to finish in 32:00 which would have been perfect 10:00 miles. After remembering how bad I got about doing any exercise, I was really happy with how the day turned out. I'm still thinking about the Bolder Dash. Not sure whether to focus on improving the 5k time or to try a 10K. I'll have to figure out how late I can register and decide then.

I walked around the fair for a little while after the race. Over-stimulation may be the key word. Crowd may be another good word. I really liked walking around the fair when it first opened. I think that's the best time to go probably. Even the bathrooms are still fine that early in the morning. No one is cranky because it's too early to be either hot or tired. I toured the Eco-building, always a favorite, and went into the green friendly remodeling spaces. It was neat to see that I do have some decent options for green materials when I remodel my condo. Although I wasn't wild about the cork floor. They had granite and bamboo counter-tops that were really cool. Do they make flooring out of granite as well? I got a card for a place that's really close to where I live. I'll try to go over one night and check it out. I think I need to at least scope it out before I bring my Dad over. I need to be prepared for any possible criticisms he will have. Can't walk in blind so to speak.

And then I had Chipotle for lunch. Partly because I was hungry but also because I have very little food in my house and I have zero desire to go grocery shopping on a Sunday with everyone else (who didn't go to the fair today). I have some edamame. Mmmmm, yum!

This is my 701st post!

Congratulations!

I found this picture of a sign on a Flickr group.

The moment I saw the sign, I thought, "I know that sign. I've been there too". After a short interlude where I updated the drivers on my computer so the scanner would function properly, I have digital proof.

Unconscious Mutterings

I haven't done this in a while, so I thought it would be fun.
1. Uneven :: pavement, cement
2. Wonder :: Natalie Merchant
3. Spider :: man, tobey maguire
4. Emma :: emma thompson, wasn't that a book by jane austen?
5. Swing:: low sweet chariot, coming....
6. Orbit :: outer space
7. Flirt :: that would be fun
8. Donation :: charity, people who go to church give more
9. Veil :: Harry Potter when Sirius Black dies
10. Atmosphere :: earth, ocean

Painting woes

It all started weeks ago when I saw this great commercial for painters tape, which made me believe it was possible to paint more than one color on my wall. And then I went to Ikea and was further encouraged to decorate my wall. Some internet research led me to believe the best option would be to paint stripes on the wall in my entryway. Kelly came over, helped me pick out colors and off I went. The first coat went on nicely.
I started measuring lines with my cool painters level. I didn't even get super OCD about the whole thing which is really quite something. I got the lines measured and started taping the walls. That's where the trouble began.

Kelly came over yesterday to help me paint some. Luckily I didn't tape the entire entryway. Because when I tried to pull up the tape from the flat finish paint, this is what happened:



This is what it looks like where there was no tape. It's a really subtle effect, just adds some interest to the entryway, which is the first thing people see and kind of boring. It's also a small enough space that I could get away with this.


I spent part of today touching up the parts where the paint had peeled off. From far away it looks, sort of ok.


Close up, it's still sad. I haven't been successful at internet research about how to cover up peeling paint, especially in a way that evens out the texture. Any search of peeling paint just takes me to more information than anyone ever needed about lead. I think I need to stop and let the paint dry for a while and work on my next move.




This has all got to be fixed by September 12 because my Dad is coming to visit the next day.

exercise accountability: day one

I did get up and run this morning. I can't believe how easy it was once I got over the initial, "oh crap" of it all. My Mom kind of freaked out when I told her I hadn't exercised in a week and am running a race Sunday morning. Interestingly, I'm not freaking out. I ran 2.5 miles today. Normally I would have run further but I had to stop running due to intestinal distress. Honest, it wasn't because I was tired.

The things I forgot about running:
1. I cannot believe how hungry I was all day. I did not have enough food. I'm thinking Chipotle tomorrow. I'm also beginning to understand why I could eat Chipotle so often.
2. It's weird to come home at the end of the day and not have to exercise. Something about that makes me feel like I'm cheating.
3. It takes a while to dry my hair in the morning. Now that my hair is short there are different stresses about getting the hair ready for the day. Who else gets super hot after blow drying and then trying to straighten their hair. I don't like to get all sticky doing that. Honestly, I just took a shower to avoid that feeling.

I think Kelly might come over and help me paint tomorrow night. How excited am I? I haven't finished taping the entry way yet, but I have a shorter work day tomorrow so I might come home and do that. It's almost done! Exciting!

the exercise accountability program

I've created the "Liz Melcher Exercise Accountability Program". The secret: friends who will shame me if I don't exercise. We'll see if that can pull me out of bed tomorrow morning in time to exercise before my 8:30 meeting. I did go to the Y tonight. I did the rowing machine and lifted weights. I'll run tomorrow morning.

A few things I found today:
1. 14 Foods That Lower Cholesterol. You know who you are and why I'm posting this.
2. This is funny because I know where it happened.
3. All I can say to this one is "me too!!".

Done with the day

I'm done for the day. Although I just looked over at my hallway which still needs some taping. It was a long day. And now I can hear my neighbors talking. Can someone make them be quiet?

I got my hair cut tonight. Every really long hard day should end with a scalp massage and a good hair cut. How relaxing. She took off a little more than I expected. It still can get into a pony tail, barely. I told her to leave enough for an up-do.

And yes, my buzzer does look gross. What's even funnier is I have no idea how I'm going to reattach the plate to the wall because I pulled off most of the glue with the plate. Blech.

Technically, there was lots of exercise this week

Technically, there was lots of exercise this week, even though none of it came in a normal way. I painted my entire entryway, including my closet, this weekend. I don't know why the closet is important, but it seems well worth mentioning because it was such a pain to empty it.


First, there was taping. This is my entryway. Altogether there are four doors, an accordion door closet, and two doorways with no doors. (You know, the kinds that are designed not to have a door.) And then there was the inside of the closet. I'm choosing not to think about that.


I took off all the light fixtures and the smoke alarm cover. And then I got to the cover for my buzzer to let guests into the building. There were no screws holding the plate to the wall. (I rolled my eyes and thought in my head: this is going to be like the razor blades all over again.) I had a totally OCD moment where I wanted to clean some of the crap out of the back there, but then I had visions of electrocution and reigned myself in.


Luckily I have an awesome friend named Amanda who came and took me to the Olive Garden last night. We found it after not being able to find it and winding up somewhere else once recently. (Note to me: It's at France Ave, not Lyndale.) After dinner we went to Southdale during a downpour where Amanda used her mojo to get us an awesome parking spot in the garage. We shopped for a little while. I had to get a fleece because my jacket was wet from running to get the car at Olive Garden. That's right. It's the middle of August and I just used the words "fleece" and "jacket" to describe my outfit. I love Minnesota. We also saw Harry Potter 5 at the movies which I highly enjoyed except the ending didn't feel very well ended. I've decided the best way to see the movies is not to read the book beforehand. That can only lead to pain and aggravation. It was cool to see some of the characters because I know what happens to them in future books. Esepcially Lupin and Tonks (::sigh::) and Kreacher.


After I got home I sheet rocked the holes I (and those before me) had created in the wall. The holes from me were from hanging things. Any unexplained holes I don't want explained.

That's when my hall closet threw up on my bedroom. Thanks. After I dealt with the mess, I headed for bed.


This morning after a trip to my local Ace Hardware (who are wonderful), the painting got started.


Thank you to Amanda for stressing the importance of a drop cloth. You were right and I totally wouldn't have thought it was a big deal without your input.


After several long hours, I got the first coat entirely done. And it looks really... pink. Kelly, I blame this on you. It's much pinker in person. But I like it. I'm happy to have color in any room in my house. I didn't have enough for a second coat, though some parts of the wall will get a second coat in the semi-gloss. I have enough to do touch-ups on the other parts that need it.



The clean up process was interesting. I got pain all over me. Again, Amanda thanks for recommending the drop cloth. Otherwise my carpet probably would have looked the same way.

I can't wait to get painting on the semi-gloss stripes. (I really can't wait to have this project completed either.) I think it's going to look great (yes, even in pink). All the pictures I had hanging in there have black frames which will really pop on that color wall. It'll be a great entryway.