The Smokies

I am off this week on spring break and EZ and I had decided we wanted a little mini vacation so we headed to Gatlinburg, TN for a few days which is on the TN border of Smokey Mountain National Park. I would say Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge is like Myrtle Beach of the mountains, there are mini golf places and go kart places every block and tons of show things. I don't know what I was expecting but it was much different than I thought.

We left Friday and were suppose to arrive Friday night and we were about 25 miles from Gatlinburg on the NC side of the Smokies when we arrived at a closed road due to ice/snow. The detour was 3 1/2 hours around. It was already 9pm at this point so we started to drive back the way we came and stayed the night in Asheville. It started as a very long start to our trip. We did a little shopping and eating and some hiking. We did not end up skiing as there really wasn't a lot of snow on the ground-actually none in Gastlinburg-only snow up the mountain a bit, and the ski place in Gatlinburg is pretty small.

On one of our hikes up Chimney Tops Mountain, the trail was covered in snow. It made our 4 mile roundtrip hike take a total of 3 hours. There were parts that were really steep and take that covered in packed down snow makes it really slippery. On the way down, it made so that we were practically skiing on the trail just on our shoes sliding our way down the mountain. Quite an adventurous hike. I must say that it would be beautiful here in the fall when all the trees are changing colors...as it was practically all the trees are bare. We came back a day early so that we could enjoy some down time at home and went and saw Avatar in 3D yesterday which was really good.

Here are a couple photos from our trip:


A short hike to a waterfall our first day.


The view from our balcony where we stayed.


At the start of the hike up Chimney Tops


Me sliding down the trail trying to stay balanced!

This and That

I need a break...mentally, physically, etc. Not sure what is going on this semester, maybe it is always like this. Maybe BZ is draining me more than I think so it is more difficult to get stuff done. It seems like I just have so much going on. I am really excited for a little mini vacation over spring break to the Smokey Mountains. Might even do a little skiing (yes I know, oh my I might ski.) But for those of you who have seen me ski, I only do easy runs because the other ones are too scary for me and I go down the hill at turtle speed, so I am pretty sure I will be fine. Although I am a little bummed that for the few days we will be gone the weather forecast is in the mid 60's. Man on man, I have been waiting for these days. (Did I mentioned it snow again on Tuesday). I live in the south for a reason!

I have read a few books lately. I finished Elegance of the Hedgehog, which I thought was ok. I wasn't a fan of the writers style and I am not sure I could really explain what the book it about. It was rather dull for me in the beginning but it did get better as the story went on. And then yesterday I finished Outliers-the story of success, which I really enjoyed. What a great book about how a lot of times, what it takes to be successful is opportunities, hard work and cultural background, and perhaps a little luck. It was a very interesting book and I would recommend it to anyone. I am still reading A Brave New World as well. It is just ok to me, and I am almost 2/3 through.

Halfway There

I hit 20 weeks yesterday which is the halfway mark. Yeah! BZ is starting to get big enough that I can feel her every now and then moving around and poking me. I would say everything has been great. I haven't had any problems at all, I don't have cravings or anything. EZ is a lucky husband not having to put up with me being the crazy pregnant wife. I will say that pregnancy brain does exist and I find myself saying all sorts of absurd things. Hopefully that won't carry over too far in the classroom so my students don't feel that affect!

Yesterday I went out for a run and it was terrible. I ran 5min walk, 5min run, 3min walk, 5 min run, 3min walk and then 17 min run. But just felt horrible. Today I didn't even want to go out and run but forced myself too and low and behold had my best run to date. Almost 33 min running (jogging) straight with no walking. Wow, don't know whats up with that but I almost felt like an athlete again except for the fact that I am really shuffling along at 10min pace. :)

Thanks for all the votes on the names...there were 18 of them. I don't even know if that many people actually read my blog or voted more than once! :) Anyway, here is a picture from the 20 week mark...the little pouch is getting bigger and bigger.

The Name Game

Here is a preview of names we are thinking about. Who knows if we will eventually pick one of these or not, but just for fun, you can vote for your choice! :)

Which name would you choose?

• Regan/Reagan
• Piper
• Autumn
• Ansley/Ainsley
• Josephine (Josie)
• Audrey
• Tatum
• Cameron/Camryn
• Quinn
• Avery

View Results
Create a Poll

Beautiful Weekend

Another few days has gone by and I have been busy busy. Friday was a long day at work plus a long faculty meeting that went long, which cause me to rush to couples yoga. EZ has been interested in trying it out and they had a couples class in honor of Valentine's so I signed us up. It wasn't a typical yoga class and didn't flow very well but it was a fun experience I think.

I had to work all day Saturday for a scholarship weekend where we interview students coming to school next year for scholarships. Just a long day. EZ and I did go out to dinner last night for some good sushi (yes all cooked) and then headed to Barnes and Nobel and read some baby name books. We have compiled a list of possible names that we had started awhile ago but decided to perhaps try and finish making a list of names that we both like. Then we narrowed our list down to our top 10 names. We are making progress on the names status but we are pretty sure we are going to keep the name we end up choosing a secret. (I can keep a secret that long right?!)

I ran some errands today plus went for a run outside. It was beautiful today, 64ish and sunny. Oh so nice, which was a great reward for like a month of yucky weather. I ran for a total of 27 min today (7 min run + 3 min walk + 20 min run) plus some warmup and cool down. I find that if I try to just go for a run it is practically impossible to run straight for a long time. If I go up to the gym and ride the bike or do the elliptical for 15-20 min, then I can run straight but just walking before hand doesn't do it. But oh well, then the 7min run tends to work pretty good! I have been reading Exercising Through Your Pregnancy (thanks Alicia) and it has been extremely informative. If I can keep running or doing something similar all the way up to delivery, chances are I could deliver about a week early which would be nice right!

There's another Amelia in there

Back at xmas when we were taking my sister's crib and infant car seat, Amelia got a little upset. Krista explained to her that it was for my baby that was growing in my belly and Amelia asked me "Is there another Amelia in there?" And well, yes today we found out that indeed there is another little girl in my belly.

My mom said when she told my dad, his response was, "Of course it is another girl." I wonder if EZ's parents will be think the same thing. Granddaughter number 4 for them and no grandsons!

BZ had all good measurements, all fingers and toes, 2 kidneys, ect, except for a spot on her left ventricle which is apparently called a echogenic foci spot (or a calcium deposit). Apparently this is a minor marker for a chromosomal defect but since I had done the blood screening and that was negative and all other indicators are negative, there is no increased risk for anything. This is something that apparently is fairly common. From what I have read over the last hour about it, it sounds like most of the time the spot goes away. I will have to ask at my next appointment about if they are going to do another ultrasound in 2 months or so to see.

Anyway, here are a couple of the good photos from today. She was a little acrobat moving all over the place (it must have been the ice cream I had at lunch to pep her up!)

Maternity Pants

So I am getting to the point where I can't wear too many of my pants anymore. I headed to Old Navy yesterday to try and find some maternity pants. Ummmm....yeah, I can't fit into any of the smallest maternity pants, they are all too big. So I think I have to go either with just buying a couple pairs of bigger pants (for work) or using the belly band for awhile. The belly band I have been using already but am looking for a couple options where I don't have to.

Anyway, here is a photo of me...18 weeks and about to bust out of my pants. I think I need a little while longer before I take one with my shirt up over my belly.

Compacting

Does it ever seem that you get busy all of a sudden and everything compacts down together to create a period of just chaos. Seems like it has been that way for me for the past couple weeks. Not sure what is going on but am hoping to get a break in another week. The pile of work that is building in my office is getting a little out of hand. Again I was home late every night this week, or had things to go to and looking at my planner the next couple weeks are more of the same. Spring break will be a much needed welcome in a few weeks and hopefully everything will settle down a bit.

I read a few more books...One Second After-the story of what would happen if America was attacked by another country by an electromagnetic pulse. It was actually pretty scary to read of the possibilities of this happening and what could happen to the way we live and our country. Very different from what I normally read but good too.

I just finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog which was just ok. It was really hard to get through-at least the first 2/3rd's of the book. I didn't care for the authors writing style all that much either and really can't give a good explanation of what the book is even about.

I just started Brave New World in my slow going attempt to read more classics.

Promise to post a picture this weekend of my little belly and I am getting excited to find out next week if little BZ is going to be a razorback or a ladyback (as Monica so nicely put it on facebook!)

Busy Bee

It was a long and busy week for me. Work is going just fine but it seemed like every night I was out doing something. Like Yoga on Mondays and I work late on Tuesdays and then Wed we had a job candidate in and I went to dinner with her and then Thursday nights I have been tutoring a middle school kid in my neighborhood. I finally got a little break on Friday night and then Saturday was back to work all day for one of our scholarship weekends at HPU.

EZ and I did go over to Barnes and Nobel yesterday evening and I spent some time reading "The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth" which I has received great reviews. I read a bunch of it and it was extremely informative about having an all natural birth and some great questions to ask my doctor at my next appointment which is in a week and a half (when we find out if BZ is a little girl or boy).

I have another busy week or two before things start calming down at work and just in general. I signed EZ and I up for a couples yoga in a couple weeks and he has agreed to go to learn beginners Salsa dancing with me too at the beginning of March. Should be fun! We have always wanted to go to a Nascar race and I thought we could go to Bristol in March but not sure it is the best for BZ, something about potential hearing loss doesn't sound good. I will have to look into it some more to see if it is OK. There is lots of stuff either way so we'll see. Off to a Superbowl party here in a little bit!

Projects

As stated, EZ was building a desk in our loft area and it is all complete. He did a wonderful job and it looks great. Here is the new desk:



We started the process of cleaning out the office. Really this was our room upstairs that we had our computer in (on just a table) and lots of boxes of crap that we have yet to really do anything with since we have moved here. We spent a few hours the other day going through all of the office stuff in the room so transfer to the new desk. Throwing out all sorts of stuff and shredding what seemed like thousands of documents dating back almost 3 years. We are still going through lots of stuff and putting together the donation pile and figuring out what we can sell on ebay/craigs list. Then we can start loading in all the baby stuff we already have!

Here is a photo midprocess of cleaning out the room:



As for goal setting...we both went through step 1 of Nick's plan for goal setting of basically creating a bucket list of what we want to accomplish in life and then broke it down into 5 year intervals. Here are a few things on my 30-34 age group list:
Be a Good Wife and New Mom
Have an all natural birth
Spend more time with family/friends
Eat Healthy(er)-more local/organic/environmental and make better food choices
Work on Patience
Start a Garden
Learn to Sew and Knit and make more Crafts
Work on Yoga and Flexibility
Break 22min in a 5K

I think it was a really good process of just taking the time to write out things you want to do/accomplish in life and prioritizing them. It also helped (I think) both EZ and I just focus a little more on ourselves and really just being present with life.

Goals

Our friend Nick has given up triathlons (he was intensely serious) and is starting to live what I would think of as a more well rounded life. We had lots of conversation about how he spent all his time training even with people he thought were his friends only to find out now that he is not training they don't really care to see him. In the meantime he has laid out a whole new set of goals-and he has a lot to say about creating 1 year goals versus 5 year goals and setting weekly goals, etc.

EZ and I then went to discussing goals last night and that maybe we should sit down and think about 5 year goals and short term goals and the discuss what we have together. These can be all sorts of goals in different areas of life-athletic, personal, work, health, etc. We both decided we needed to spend a few days thinking to ourselves about our own life and different goals we might have and then sit down together to talk about them. I am a firm believer in spreading out your life to not be so 1-dimensional. The whole idea of training so intensely (or working 100hrs a week, or spending all your time with 1 person not leaving time for other people you care about, etc) for something only to not have the time to devote to learning other things or spending time with friends and family or traveling or doing something else you enjoy and all other sorts of things.

Or maybe that is just my philosophy, maybe some people can do mainly 1 thing and feel like that have everything else too. I guess it all comes down to what would ultimately make me (or you) happy right. If what makes me happy is spreading out my interests than that is what I should do, or if what makes me happy is winning a triathlon than that is where I should spend my time, or if I enjoy studying mathematics and publishing papers than focus on that. I think each person has to evaluate for themselves what they would enjoy doing best. But I do think Nick is right in that there a lots of things that I (or people) want to do in life but something always seems to get in the way. I had always wanted to go Europe but EZ and I let school and then triathlons become more important and it took giving that up to say "lets go to Europe" and actually go.

Either way, I think it is important for everyone to sit down every once in a while to think about who they are and what they want out of life and set goals, however small or large or personal or not personal at all they may be.

Fun Weekend

We headed down to Charlotte on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with some friends. We ate some great food thanks to Nick's new cooking skillz and played a few games of Risk, 3 to be exact and everyone one a game but me. :) We had lots of down time hanging out and chatting and it was nice to catch up with them as it has been quite awhile since we have seen them. The next time we do, Jen will probably have had her baby (due at the end of March) and we might have a little one running around too.

I went out on Saturday morning for a run/walk and I ran a total of 22 min in two intervals of 10 min run, 5 min walk and then 12 min run. I felt slow and sluggish but that is ok, it was nice to be outside and get some more running time in. If I wasn't going to yoga tomorrow I would try again for maybe three intervals. So maybe Tuesday if the weather is nice.

And for those who wanted to see my bump, well I took a picture today and it just looks like I am fat and I will not be posting any baby bump picture until it looks more like an actual bump then me just looking fat. Sorry about that! :)

The Terrible Tarheels

We have 1/2 a season of UNC bball tix and last night was our first ACC game of the season. Now I know the heels haven't been doing well at all, I mean a loss to College of Charleston and a few others. Even back when they were playing in the fall, the games we saw were very sloppy. The ball handling skills of the team are horrific and it is a shame that they are just not that good this year. Who knows how they managed the win against Michigan State in the fall, that was unreal. Makes me think that we should have passed on tix this year. But oh well. I am excited that we have UNC vs NCSU tix and so for those of you who think I am a traitor for liking UNC, I always root for NCSU when they play against each other and I will wear red to that game.

I had a doctors appointment yesterday and all looks good, heartrate of BZ was 156 and the doctor said it sounded strong. All other things were good too. And I did not know that me mentioning the baby bump would cause so many comments. I will take a pix this weekend at 15 weeks and post it.

I am speedy

I tried my attempt at running outside today since it was so nice out. I walked for 10 min pretty fast to warm up and then ran 1 1/2 miles at 9:00min/mile pace! Maybe it is just that treadmill but it was nice to know that I am not too terribly slow...yet.

Hopefully the weather cooperates and I will be able to amp up to the 20-30 min mark.

Oh, and today my coworker said that I had a nice baby bump and was looking preggers. It is too early!!! At this rate I will be huge come July!

Lovely Weekend

It has gotten a little warm here in the south, thank goodness. I was so over a few weeks of the bitter cold. Although the 40's are coming back later this week, the 60 degrees and sunshine has been wonderful. Made it out for a nice walk on Friday and again today which was great.

I was up at the gym on Sunday morning and I managed a whopping 15 min on the treadmill at 9:40pace! Don't be jealous that I can run that fast! I was pleasantly surprised that it went so well and am still hoping to increase my running eventually to at least 20-30 min so that once it does get warmer I can head outdoors instead of going to the gym.

We drove to G.G's (grandmas) house on Sunday for a little visit with her and a couple of my aunts and uncles. It was been a while since we have seen them, and it was time. I told her we would hopefully be back for Easter and then again maybe in the fall after little BZ is born. I am starting to think that it is a little girl in their while EZ has gone from thinking it is a boy to not having a clue.

On the "to-do" list for EZ is a bunch of things and one of them is to build a desk in our loft area since we are going to move our "office" (which really is just a table with our computer and filing cabinets and boxes of crap that we haven't even unpacked since we moved in 3 years ago) out and it will become the nursery. We went to Lowes and Home Depot on Saturday, bought the cabinets and countertops, hardware and a few other things and low and behold...the desk is already almost done. EZ was up in the attic when I came home today and I asked him what he was doing...well he was running the cable through the wall of course. I asked him why and he said well if we move the desk out here and our internet is through the cable, I need a cable outlet. He is extremely handy. When the desk is done in another day or so, I will have to post pictures, as I am extremely impressed by it.

He also told me that he found a solution to our kitty litter situation. You see, our littler box is in our spare bathroom upstairs, where eventually our kid(s) will be using. He told me he was going to cut a hole in the wall in the bathroom, put in a door and build out an extra little room/storage/closet thing where he will put the litter box and then put a kitty door in the door. Apparently there is just empty space behind this wall that is over our garage that he can reinforce enough to have a little room there. You can add that to his growing to do list. (The patio still needs to happen this spring too!) Lots (for him) to do while I grow a baby inside of me. :)

8am classes are exhausting

I haven't taught an 8am class in a while but I have a Tues/Thur 8am class this semester. I think I have gotten use to sleeping in a little (by that I mean until like 6:45 or 7), but in order to make it to work I really should leave by 7 for my 8o'clock class. I have taken to setting the alarm at 6:20. Really, this shouldn't seem too early for me, but my whole system has gone out of whack. I go to bed now before 10 and sleep until 7 and I am tired all the time. Hopefully in a few weeks the tiredness is suppose to go down a little and my 6:20am wakeup won't be too bad. Now I am eating breakfast earlier and that pushes up my lunch. It is 11:30 right now and I am already hungry (and I had a snack about 45min ago). :)

I ran for 10 min again yesterday after my 25 min on the bike and elliptical. I had to go slower than 10min pace which was a mental downer for me, but maybe I was just having a bad day! While I have been on the bike and elliptical I have been reading Animal Vegetable Miracle which has inspired me to do all sorts of things. EZ has come to accept my level of craziness and said he would be willing to try anything I want to make. The latest of these is making my own cheese. I even search around NC for a cheese making class! And speaking of classes, I am suppose to start a sewing class soon but I wasn't paying any attention and it turns out the class interferes with 2 of our UNC bball games that we have tix for and since we paid a lot for those, I called up the Community college and they are just putting me in the next class that starts mid March. I did find another class though on making homemade all natural products that I might take. We'll see.

As for the pregnancy, other than being tired, not too much else. I have never in my life experienced heartburn and even a few weeks ago asked EZ what it feels like. "Like burning in your heart" is what he told me. But what does that feel like??? Funny I should have asked because a couple days ago I came home and told him that I had heartburn for the first time and it really was like a burning in your heart! It wasn't too bad though and it didn't last long, so no big deal. But I know that means it probably will be coming back to haunt me!

Back to Work

School starts back up tomorrow and we have to be in our offices today for students. it has been a nice and very quick three weeks. I spent most of it with family so it didn't seem like I really got a break for myself. My mom was in town this weekend with my grandparents driving them across the country to their CA home so we just kind of hung out and ran errands and stuff. Nothing all that exciting. We did buy a few gender neutral sleep sacks and a couple onesies but that was about all.

My sweet potato chicken curry recipe was great. I found it here and it is a slow cooker recipe which I love. My chicken was local and so was my sweet potatoes, so I thought that was pretty good. Everyone seemed to like it. I did only use 3 tsps of curry powder instead of 4 and it has plenty of flavor.

I have been able to start getting a little bit of working out in. And I managed to run for 10 min the other day after 30 min of cardio. It was very slow but I help up as opposed to my 6 min of running earlier in the week. But I hadn't worked out in a couple weeks so I expected to be slow and dragging. I have gotten lots of sleep this past week and I am starting to feel less tired which is good since teaching starts back up tomorrow. Hopefully I can stay on top of the working out thing with classes. I typically like to workout in the morning but with 8:00am classes on Tue/Thur and 9:00am classes on M/W/F I am not sure if I will be able to get the workout in in the morning depending on my tiredness level.

It's Alive

We had an ultrasound the other day and here are some of the better photos. EZ said that the baby looks like a boy now. Even though little baby didn't move around too much, it was fun watching all the movements on the monitor. Baby has two arms and two legs and the little heartbeat was racing away. Enjoy the photos of BZ (baby Zack)!






School is getting ready to start up and I have been busy getting all my classes prepared. I am almost there but have a little more work to do. And on the cooking side of things, the granola I made turned out pretty good. And when I priced it out, it cost maybe $4-$5 for the gallon of granola that I made, which is cheap considering how much granola in a box costs for like 14oz, plus it is probably healthier since there is all natural ingredients and no added sugars! Here is a photo of the granola when I was done and I kind of halved this strawberry-banana granola recipe I found. Here is a photo of what mine looked like at the end.



I also sent EZ to the co-op in Carborro to get some local meat and I made tacos one night and use the leftover ground beef and we had taco salad another night. I even made my own taco seasoning, which was super easy! This weekend I am going to try the local chicken with a sweet potato recipe I found. Yum!

2010 Schedule

I know many of the people that read this are triathletes, and since this started out as a triathlonish blog, I guess I should update on my 2010 schedule. I didn't do anything in 2009 for many different reasons. One being our 3 week trip to Europe and I started training lightly when we got back but never truly got into anything. As for this year, there is only one date scheduled:

July 17th(ish) - giving birth to our first child

I am currently 12 weeks preggers and all things are looking good. I waited this long to post anything for many reasons and we even surprised both of our families at Christmas by waiting to tell them until then.

We gave EZ's parents are card that said to Grandma and Grandpa....Love EZ, LZ and the baby. They were very excited that we will be giving them grandchild number 4 (in hopes that maybe it will be a boy since they have 3 granddaughters already). Then after just a few days earlier telling my mom that EZ and I didn't think we were going to have kids, we gave my parents a picture frame with the following picture inside:



Now I think the picture is pretty self explanatory, don't you??? And yes that is full on baby razorback gear! This is what happened when my mom opened the present. (Sorry for the quality of the video as the lighting was terrible):



It was pretty funny and my whole family is very excited (I bet they hope for a boy too since they already have little Amelia!). As for EZ and I, we both have no preferences to a boy or a girl and it seems that girls might be running on both sides of the family, we are scheduled to find out the sex on Feb 17th.

I haven't been able to do all that much exercising at all. I still am going to yoga and have been able to go ride the stationary bike or get on the elliptical for 30-45 min a few times a week but running has been shot out the window. I have had some serious asthma issues and then while they got better, it seems that running exhausts me to the extreme. I can manage 10-15 min at best a couple times a week but since it has become so exhausting I have stuck to the bike and elliptical. I need to do something so I can keep eating ice cream! Speaking of which, the sis bought me some excellent Lemon Custard ice cream from Moomers and it survived the drive home from MI so that is on my dessert list tonight!

Here is to a great new beginning to our family in 2010!

Happy 2010

We finally made it home last night after what seemed to me like the longest trip ever. I have only been gone 1 1/2 weeks but it seems much longer. After leaving Buffalo, I headed to my parents for a few days while EZ flew home to work. He then flew back up to MI and we headed up further north to Traverse City for New Years with my sister and her family.

New year's was nice...some hanging out and some Rock Band were all we needed to have some fun and lots of good food including homemade sushi and homemade pizza and homemade granola. Although I didn't like the granola that much because of the coconut, I found a totally different granola recipe I will be trying out tomorrow. If it works and tastes good, I'll be sure to post up the recipe.

After a fun few days up north, we traveled back to mom and dads for a day before driving home. Man it was cold up there and tons of snow. When we left Ann Arbor yesterday it was 3 degrees out! Not that it is too much better here in NC. But a high of 36 and SUN is pretty nice after a week of bitter cold and snow.

More coming soon from our trip!

My Reading List

One of my goals for this year was to start reading more and I think I did fairly well on that. That was the reason I kept a list on my blog of all the books I read this year. I will take the whole list off and start a new one for 2010. I was able to read 45 books, granted 15 of those were audio books, but I still think that counts. I also wanted to read more classics...but that has such a broad meaning now. I would say about 7 of my books were classics, so I consider the year to be a success.

I just finished Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, which was pretty good. I like her books and while this one wasn't written in the same style as My Sisters Keeper or Handle With Care, it was still pretty good. EZ and I listened to a book called The Rule of Four on the drive up to NY, and it was pretty good too. This was like a DaVinci Code type book except with some college students and another ancient document. It kept our attention for the drive which was nice. Recently I listened to A New Earth, which had gotten rave reviews by Oprah. Maybe it wasn't my time for "awakening", but I found the book rather boring and dull, and the reading of it would practically put me to sleep. There were some good ideas in the book that I liked but the overall feeling for me was that I just couldn't get into it.

I just started Animal Vegetable Miracle, and it is good so far. In my attempt to eat more and more local, this should give me some more ideas.

Happy Reading!

Merry Christmas

It has been a fun and relaxing few days so far. EZ and I headed up to Buffalo starting last Wed and arrived in NY on Thursday around noon. We did plan a stop at the Original Pancake House for my Apple Pancake for my birthday on Thursday morning...but it was closed Christmas Eve! I was so disappointed. But we manage to go instead on Saturday morning in Buffalo so all was not lost.

We were able to spend some time with EZ's family and lots of Aunts and Uncles and cousins which was nice to see everyone. We played some cards and bananagrams and a very intense game of Monopoly. There was no snow on the ground which was strange and it rained for two days. I have been eating a lot of food and cookies and not doing a bit of exercise. But it is alright for a week or so to just pack on the calories right??? :)

I made it to my parents and am hanging out here for a couple days with Amelia, which is cuter than ever until EZ flys back up here for our second round of Christmas with my family. Fun fun fun. We will head back together to NC on Sunday.

Wishing you all wonderful times spent with family and friends!

Holiday

Oh how wonderful to be off for a couple weeks. This semester seemed to be a really tough one. I never seemed to have a break and worked a lot more on the weekends and evenings then I normally do. Not sure what was different but I am glad for the break. I needed it both mentally and physically.

We got some snow on Friday (about 2 inches) and it has stay nice and pretty and white. It wasn't warm enough yesterday to melt a lot of it, but I think in a couple days it will all be gone. Both EZ and I spent the entire day yesterday in or pajamas which was one of the nicest things possible. Having absolutely nothing that had to get done and we didn't need to leave the house.

I will probably spend the next few days cleaning and wrapping presents and stuff. We have a whole pile (meaning all) of gifts that we haven't wrapped yet and there is laundry to be done and packing and just errands to run, but no work!

I finally finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It was pretty good, and I like the way the book was written but it didn't really grab my attention all that well. I haven't decided what to read next but I might read Three Cups of Tea or Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, or The Lost Symbol. All of these I hope to read over my break.

For those on the east, hope the snow is as beautiful as it is here!

Changing the Way We Eat

I think I am pretty conscience about what we eat, what we buy at the store and stuff. I mean, I joined a CSA this summer and then this fall and am part of our Co-op in Burlington, so that when it opens (hopefully next fall) we will have a local store selling local foods close by. I even had started looking into joining a meat CSA too, so we could get all our veggies and meat from local farms.

After watching Food Inc last night, I think I finally have convinced Eric of a lot of my reasonings behind wanting to do all this. It is really quite amazing what goes on behind the scenes of the food industry and just where all our food comes from. If you have read The Omnivore's Dilemma then a lot of what Pollen talks about in the book is in the movie but there is a lot more. I was just in shock of the politics behind both the meat industry and the soybean industry. I even told EZ this morning that I might even want to give up my soymilk and see if I my digestive system can handle drinking locally produced regular milk. Even though I do drink "organic soymilk", the whole idea that my soybeans are most likely coming from genetically modified beans from a corporation that has a monopoly on the soybean industry makes me mad. I might have to look into my soymilk that I do drink to see if I can figure out where the beans are grown.

EZ told me he would stop by the local market in Carborro and start buying all our meat from Weaver Street so at least I know it is coming from local farms, and we will just have to start investigating a farm to buy all our meat from. The CSA I joined this summer wasn't the best, so I signed up for a different one for next year and hopefully that will go well. I am currently with a second CSA that is better than the first but still not exactly what I am looking for. I will find the right one eventually!

Go out and watch Food Inc (if you have netflix it is available to watch instantly!) and hopefully we can all start changing the way we view food.

Countdown

Oh...so many things to count down...

4 more finals to give (and grade)

5 days left of this semester

10 days until I have to start saying my age begins with a 3

12 days until Christmas and hopefully a a Dutch Apple Pancake from The Original Pancake house up in Buffalo (I think I have persuaded EZ to take me there for my bday gift)

14 days until I see my parents

17 days until I see my sister and E and my cute adorable little niece

19 days until 2010!

EZ's Dreams

At 1 am last night...

EZ: "Laurie"

(me nothing)

EZ: "Laurie?!"

me: "What?" (as I sleepily wake up I notice he is propped up on his elbow in bed leaning over me)

EZ: "Oh, OK"

me: "What??? Why did you wake me up?"

EZ: "I thought you had dirt on your face"

me: "What are you talking about"

EZ: silence....

This morning when the alarm went off, I asked him if he remembered waking me up and what he said to me. He told me he kind of remembered waking me up but didn't have a clue what he had said to me. When I told him, we both started laughing.

What a fun way to start the morning! :)

A Honest Student

For all of my classes I utilize a web application called blackboard. This basically allows me to post any information I want to the site for each of my classes. I use this to post notes from class, review sheets, homework, etc.

Well my two Calculus 1 classes got on different schedules due to a power outage one day. So one of my classes took a test on Friday and one of them will be taking their test tomorrow. I had written my test and saved in on my computer in a folder where I saved the review sheet, calling one CalcTest3 and one CalcTest3Review. Who would have thought that Friday afternoon when I went to upload my Review sheet for my second class, I uploaded the actual test!

I just received an email from a student telling me that I had posted the test online and not the review sheet. I have absolutely no idea how many of my students have seen it, but it looks like I will be writing another test for tomorrow and I am extremely grateful that the student was honest and told me in the first place!

The $1 Book Store

Have I mentioned this used book store nearby that sells $1 books. Every book in the store is $1. I know you are super excited about this if you like to read. So for me, I get all giddy when I head to the store. Sometimes I can't find anything and other times I find all sorts of stuff.

I recently went last Wed on the way to meet EZ before we headed on to the beach. I keep a list of books I want to read on my iphone, so I bring it up while I am there and start searching. I found a few other books that seem interesting plus 6 of my books on my list! How excited I was. I am on a mission to read a bunch of "classics" and I found some. I was super excited they had Midnights Children as I have wanted to read that book for a while but hadn't gone out to buy it yet. I now have created quite a collection of books in my house that I haven't read, but it is just too good to pass up $1 books! Eventually, my library of books will get read. And of course you can also bring in used books for 50cents credit.

If you live nearby, the store is in Mebane. Although it is not nearly as big as Edward Mckay's used book store, you can't beat the $1/book price tag! Just take the exit towards downtown Mebane and when you cross the railroad tracks, go past one more light and the store in in a building on the right had side of the road.

The Beach

EZ and I headed to Myrtle Beach for Thanksgiving this year. Mostly because EZ wanted to just get away from the house. He was sick of all the things he had to do around the house and so we packed up and drove to the beach Wed afternoon. It was quite different being somewhere for Thanksgiving. We celebrated by going to Medieval Times, which was a unique experience.

We spent our time doing some shopping and putt-putt and go kart racing, along with some nice walking on the beach and the marsh walk and lot of food and football. Too bad Arkansas didn't pull out the win last night against LSU. I am really excited about our team for next year as we have a very young football team.

It was quite chilly at the beach and to our surprise today when we got home it was beautiful and warm and sunny! EZ was able to finish up a few of the outdoorsy stuff that still needed to be done. Maybe next weekend we will go out and buy our tree and do some decorating.

I did manage to finish reading The Picture of Dorian Gray and I really liked it. Very interesting story and it was extremely captivating. I also listened to Marley and Me in the car which was a nice fluffy book that made me cry, but even though I am not a dog lover, I would still recommend the book to anyone who has pets. Alright, off to finish some work.

Trees

We finally bought some trees and got them planted in the yard this weekend. I say "we", where really, I helped pick them out and EZ dug the holes and planted them. Oh and I helped decide where they would go. Our neighborhood (for those of you that don't know) is one of those new neighborhoods, where they clear out everything and then build the houses. So for two years now we have been living here with a beautiful view of a lot of of neighbors yards and houses. We also have a lot of just empty yard space which looks odd. So we bought a few trees to beautify our yard.

We planted a purple leaf plum and a flowering cherry tree in the front yard space (one on each side) and then a red maple in the bad for some shade and privacy when we will be on the deck and then a holly tree on the other side where we hope it will provide some type of screen when we sit on the patio. Right now the trees are maybe 10ft tall but no leaves no since it is almost winter, but we are hoping that they stay in and take root and will begin to bloom next year. I meant to take pictures today but it started to rain so i wasn't able to get outside to do it.

Only two days of work and then of to the beach for a nice mini vacation!!

Beautiful Weather

We have had some great weather over the past two weekends. Of course we did have 3+ days of cold rain and wind in between from Hurricane Ida, but it was well worth it to have the weekends free of rain and to have the beautiful sun shining.

Not much has been going on around here. EZ's parents were in town last weekend and we did a little trip to WFU and the gardens and a trip to one of the wineries near they which was beautiful. And this weekend entailed some relaxing, football, UNC basketball game and some time outdoors. EZ finally finished putting up all the siding on the house and now the deck/house looks complete. We picked out trees to get delivered to plant in our yard next week and slowly but surely it is all getting done. The house/deck looks great and we still need to find furniture for it, but that can wait.


The patio will have to wait until spring which is fine and we'll see how EZ is feeling by then. He has worked so hard on the deck/house that he is quite exhausted of having his weekend/evening tied up and will debate putting the patio in himself. I told him no rush, we won't use it over the winter anyway, so he can relax for a few months before he decides.

I haven't been reading too much, just have been way to busy. I finally finished a book I have been reading for over a month called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which I really enjoyed. It is the story of two girls in rural China and become lifelong friends and it follows the story between them and their growing up, through foot binding, marriage, ect.

I am currently reading two books, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society that Monica let me borrow and then The Picture of Dorian Gray (on my Iphone which I downloaded for free from the app Stanza). I read that whenever I am sitting around waiting for something like in a doctors office or I have been reading it when I got up to the gym and ride the bike. Both books are good so far and I am about halfway through each one.

Alright, off to do some work and teach some calculus.

Neverending Semester

I thought my fall break would revitalize me and it did for that week and a few days and now it has all come piling back up again. Last weekend I took home papers to grade that were a total of 3 inches thick. I managed to spend a lot of my weekend grading papers to then on Monday give three more tests and continue my pile.

I don't know which is the worst part...the fact that I bring my work home at night and on the weekends or just the fact of grading papers.

Work is just getting the best of me this semester and I am once again looking forward to the end in just 6 more weeks....ahhhhhhhh. Then I can get some good sleep.

Did I mention that this morning I tripped over my computer laptop cord in my office which pulled my laptop crashing down to the floor... :) I have a huge crack in it now and broke a piece off...a couple buttons now are broken. One of my colleges has volunteered to bring it home with him to try and repair everything. Hopefully come Monday, it will be healed.

On the positive side of things, it is Friday and EZ and I are taking a mini vacation down to Myrtle Beach over Thanksgiving. Just us, to get away and relax at the beach, should be a fun time!

Michigan Vaca

I had a nice fall break last week. Nice to get away and have a mini vacation. It started with my great friend Matt coming to visit. We went to a not so great US laser show at UNC followed by a lot of drinking, a great Arkansas vs Florida game, an extrmemely fun corn maze in the dark and then a drive up to Michigan through the beautiful fall changing colors. Then we spent a couple days fishing, a trip to Hell and then into Ann Arbor to try the fragels (deep fried bagels).

After that EZ flew up and we had some family time and then a trip to the Big House to watch UM lose to Penn State. We had great seats and it was fun to go tailgate and to see a game in the stadium but too bad that they lost, it was a bummer.

I had lots of fun and now it is back to work. Here are a few pics from the week:


EZ and I about to enter the corn maze



Matt and I inside the maze



What the maze actually looked like (we looked at it later)


Matt caught a fish!


Fishing away in the sunshine



A stop in Hell!


Yummy Fragels!



Before the game.

What HPU is up to

In case you wondered about where I work...here is what they were up to yesterday afternoon.

NYSE-Closing Bell

Me Time

When life just gets so busy, doesn't everyone need "me time". I have felt like my world is on fast forward and I can't keep up. For the past two weeks or so I have been going and going and going nonstop, not really having any time for myself. I have gotten behind in grading in lesson planning on running, on everything.

Most days I don't even know what day it is. For example, yesterday (Monday right) I told my class I would see them Friday, to which they responded "we don't have class Wed?" This is my world right now is what I keep telling myself. I was planning on going to a conference at NCSU this weekend but I think I might forgo that to some much needed downtime. Any suggestions on what I should do if I find some time for myself?

Tired and Sore

Every inch of me hurts and is tired. I spent literally all weekend shoveling dirt and planting plants. I seriously mean almost 9 hours on Saturday with a break for lunch and another 6 hours yesterday.

EZ rented a sod cutter Sat morning and dug up strips of sod on the one side of our house, I helped him roll it up and then he wheelbarrowed it over to the back part where he had jackhammered out the rock. So now we have grass back there. While he was doing that I dug up all the sod he couldn't get out with the sod cutter, the part right up against the house and all around our air conditioning units. He also cut up some strips in the back where the patio is going to be. After lunch I started planting...so far, 2 rhododendron, 3 azaleas, 1 camellia and 4 hostas on the one side from the air conditioners to the front corner that was a lot of digging holes and filling in with dirt!

Yesterday I dug up spots back around the edge of the deck and transplanted back the daylillies and all the gladiolas around the deck and started my garden. I planted 2 thornless blackberry bushes and 2 raspberry plants, I had 1 eggplant, 1 tomato and 5 yellow squash plants so I put all those in too. Another long day of shoveling A LOT of clay dirt out, since I used all garden soil and a good top 3 inches of soil as well.

Tonight will be planting one more rhododendron, 3 more hostas and 2 emerald green thuja trees (like a cypress on the one side of the house) and one more skinny pencil holly at the corner of the deck by the stairs and then the planting is practically done!!! Did I then mention that all the mulch gets delivered tomorrow so tomorrow night will be more shoveling?? :)

I'll post some pictures after it is finished in a few days.

Recent Readings

I have been on a books on CD kick lately driving back and forth to work and then have read quite a few books recently. Not sure the last time I posted what books I have read but I don't know if I mentioned the Time Traveler's Wife which was our last months book club pick. I really liked the book a lot but about half of the group didn't like it at all saying it was to unrealistic. Hmmmm....seems like most books (as well as movies) are pretty unrealistic. It is about imagination right!!

Then someone passed along a couple girly books: Girls in Trucks which was a highly amusing story about a debutant in Charleston and being brought up as a girl in a high society kind of family but does a little rebellion of her own. Then I read the Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing which was another story about a girl and growing up and her struggles with life and learning about different aspect of life. Both were entertaining and I enjoyed them, not in any way "deep".

On the CD front in my quest to "read" more classics I listened to The Great Gatsby, The Five People you Meet in Heaven, and Hamlet. I don't think I ever read the Great Gatsby but I actually enjoyed it and the interesting characteristics of Gatsby himself and was glad that I listened to it. The 5 people you meet in heaven I really enjoyed and found Mitch Album's writing style soothing. I enjoyed the interwoven stories throughout the book and how the 5 people he met were not necessarily people he knew. Last up I listened to Hamlet. First of all, I don't think listening to a play is a good idea, let alone a Shakespeare play. The wording alone is someone confusing and not being able to see the words made it difficult as well as knowing who was talking. The reader did a decent job explaining who was saying what but not always. I have never read Hamlet but I thought it was a great story plot and think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it.

Currently I am reading Hunting Eichmann, a true story about the search/capture of Adolf Eichmann, one of the top ranking German SS Officers from WW2 who eluded capture for 15 years. It is a little slow but I am really enjoying learning about what was going on and just the details of his life and how he and others thought. I am also listening to Something Borrowed Something Blue...another fluffy book, which I felt I needed after Gatsby and Hamlet.

Happy Readings!

Deck Progress

The deck is coming along. Still not quite finished but extremely close. EZ is finishing the railing right now but the trim on the outside of the deck still needs to go up and he has to cut the posts down and put the caps on. After that the deck is done and then he will have to worry about fixing up the house where our old deck was. We ordered more siding and trim for the house from where we ripped out the old deck and EZ also has to build some fake fireplace framing on the outside since our deck sits about 6 inches lower then the framing for our current fireplace. But we will definitely be able to enjoy the deck next weekend (if the weather holds). Now I just need to go patio furniture shopping! Enjoy the updated pictures!

The Deck with the base boards down:



View from the door on the house: (you can kind of see the angled corners of the deck)


EZ's detailed stairs out of the house to the deck:


Part of the railing: (We have little detailed baskets every few balusters):


Stairs leading off the deck to the side of the house:

Who's Excited

Season Premiere of The Office! Tonight 9:00pm!

Spoke too Soon

Got an email today stating that HPU has now had several cases of the H1N1 flu. Hopefully I don't get sick. I keep thinking I am doing a good job, washing my hands lots of times, using hand sanitizer, etc... hope it all works!

Head Cold and Candy Corn

Seems inevitable that the beginning of the school year bring upon a bout of sickness. Luckily there hasn't been any H1N1 flu yet here on our campus, which I am super grateful for. Wake Forest had a huge outbreak, so I guess I can't complain if what is going around is just some cold type thing. I managed to catch something last week and am just now getting over it. Still coughing up some stuff but my sinus headache is finally gone and I can breath again. I was able to go for a run this morning and not feel sick so I am coming along.

To make myself feel better I baked my all time favorite funfetti cake the other day. I sometimes just crave cake and this batch has turned out extremely moist! I have one more nights worth of cake for EZ and I but I don't need to despair because it is Halloween time in the stores which means I move on to eating candy corn like there is no tomorrow.

The deck is coming along, the stairs (out of the house to the deck) and flooring of the deck is done. EZ poured the concrete for the last post that will be in the ground for the stairs coming off the deck and he still has to put up those stairs and then the railing and some trim. It looks really good. I bet he will be done with everything after this weekend, pictures up next time.

A few things

I can't seem to get into a groove this semester. Half way through the third week now and I just can't get it together. I think part of the problem is I teach a late afternoon class on Tues/Thur and I have always taught in the morning. So I sit around (trying to do work) in the mornings now and have to be functioning at 4:00pm to teach a class...we'll see if my Geometry students learn anything this semester.

I went to Yoga Monday night (which was Labor day) and only one other person was there. Kind of funny we has like our own private class. Surprisingly, the instructor told me that I am looking SOOOOOO much better, so I guess it is helping! I do feel like it calms me down which is nice and that is it helping with some flexibility issues. I don't know if I will ever be able to touch my toes, but we'll keep at it.

EZ claimed he could build the deck in a weekend. It is not built. :) We don't even have boards up. The framing is all done and he built the stairs (which took him forever) and most of the posts for the railing are in and now he is working on the trim since he wants to have that up before he lays the deck boards down. I think it will be mostly done after this weekend. It looks rather big which is strange looking out on the framing but I am sure it won't be huge once we put furniture on it. Either way, I know it is going to look really nice when he is done and I am extremely grateful for a wonderful husband who can do this kind of stuff!

I have started training...for what, I am not sure and ONLY running. I am running 5 days a week now and about 25 miles a week which is a lot for me. EZ has me doing workouts 3 days a week-a mile repeat set, a hill workout and a last 1/2 mile fast run. I don't know if it is working but I will run a 5K in a few weeks and test out my fitness. I am debating on running a half marathon again this fall/winter (Nov-Dec). We'll see.

Demolition

As I speak, EZ is almost done with the joists and then he will be laying down deck. Here are some before and demolition stages, including the big hold EZ jackhammered.

Our Old deck (10ftx12ft our new deck will be 15ftx16ft):



The hole EZ dug and the pile of rock he jackhammered out:






The sod on the side of the house I dug up and then the new plants (really the old plants that were around the deck just got transplanted to the side of the house):




The back of the house after EZ demolished the old deck:


Next up will be the deck as it goes up hopefully soon!

The 99 cent bookstore

A new used bookstore opened up in Mebane not too long ago and I went to check it out the other week. Every book in the store is 99 cents! And you can sell your books back there for credit as well. I left the store with only 5 books, but how can you beat the price. After my trip to the other huge bookstore earlier this summer when I bought 7 used books (not 99cents though) and I ordered a few more the other week, I am at a all time high of books I have but have not read yet!

I read a few books lately, Nature Girl, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and The Red Tent. Nature girl was really not that good, I learn a decent amount from Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Red Tent was pretty interesting. Currently I am reading The Time Traveler's Wife which I am thoroughly enjoying (and is our book club book this week)! I should finish that this week and then I will have to decide what to pick up next.

Oh and demolition of the deck occurred on Saturday, now our back yard is completely empty! EZ is hoping the permit from the city is approved this week so he can get building this upcoming weekend.

First Day of School

It always comes up fast don't you think? I was finishing my syllabus for my 12:30pm class today at 11:00 this morning. No I am not a procrastinator, just got busy with other stuff. And once I get going on one of my classes I keep going when I should stop and work on something else. So for my two Calc classes I am already prepped through the first 4 weeks or so!

The big hole in the back yard is done, EZ jack-hammered out the rock and filled it in with the sod I dug up from the side of the house. EZ had to help me transplant all the plants from the around the old deck to the side since they were too heavy for me but it is getting there. The old deck will be ripped out this weekend. All of this labor has made both EZ and I so sore we could barely move Sunday afternoon!! I have some pics but will post them when there is some more progress.

The Incoming Freshman Class

Check out this article from the USA Today that was brought to my attention at our faculty meeting yesterday and I found it rather interesting, or maybe more alarming:

Most alarming are these main comments about the incoming freshman into collage:
40% of students were not able to use the correct adverb or adjective form in a sentence, use the correct preposition in a phrase or make sure that the subject and verb agree in a sentence.

•30% were unable to evaluate the contribution that significant details make to a text as a whole.

•Nearly 40% could not solve multi-step problems involving fractions and percentages.

•40% could not predict the results of an additional trial of a scientific experiment.


Oh the future of America...

Fun Filled Weekend

We had a busy and fun filled weekend. Saturday was a great day to catch up with friends we haven't seen in a while. It started with a great run of 5 miles and then some homemade quiche for a brunch we were having. Two of my grad school friends/old office mates met up here with their families for a few hours of catching up and good food. It was great to see them again!

After a little down time in the afternoon we headed to Durham for a Durham Bulls baseball game with some triathlon friends from the triangle area. Game food is always so good and it was nice to finally meet Keri! The fireworks after the game were pretty good too!

We started Sunday with some work in the yard...and I was spent after like 1 1/2 hours of digging up sod, while EZ has been digging a hug hole in the back and breaking up a rock so that we can actually grow grass back there. Our approval came on Friday for our new deck and patio so the next who knows how many weekends will be spent working on that. My job so far is the digging up the sod and moving all the plants from the back, and tearing down the deck. But it will all be worth it in the end!

Someone Might Think You're Training

I was out for a bike ride with EZ and our friend Ben and it dawned on me that I rode my bike 3 times last week. Then I go off and do a 5 mile run, the longest in at least 6 months and then do a 22.5 mile bike ride (5 longer than my longest ride in at like 10 months). Hmmmm...did I mentioned I swam 750meters the other day. EZ actually tells me I better watch out, someone might think I am training!

Don't worry, it won't last long. Once school starts back up in another week or so, I won't be at home every day thinking I need to go out and workout. And trust me, I don't consider this training, but a little more than just exercise perhaps.

Camping in Ohio

The other weekend we decided to drive up to Ohio and meet my sister and family for a weekend of camping. Why Ohio??? It just so happens this is halfway between my sister and I (about 7 hours each). We left early Friday morning and drove up to right outside Akron and met them for lunch. Then off to the campground to set up camp, do a little playground action with Amelia and then dinner and smores around the campfire. You can never go wrong with true smores around a campfire!

We spent Saturday at Cuyahoga National Park doing a little hiking and seeing some waterfalls and a little more playground fun for Amelia followed by a stop at a local ice cream place. Then of course more yummy smores at night. Sunday our plans were to head to a beach there but it started raining over night so we found a local diner for breakfast then packed up our stuff, did a little more driving around the park and seeing some waterfalls and then headed home.

Here are a few pictures:
Amelia really wanted the blue ice cream:



The last day on a short little walk to see a small waterfall:



My sister has a really cute one of Amelia and I on the first night, but she won't be posting her pics for a while since they are a little behind on their blog!

EZ and I managed to listen to The Kite Runner on the trip and it was an excellent book. Even EZ really liked it. It was a great story and interesting insights on the Muslim world. I also read a short novel called Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. It is the story of two teenage boys who have to be re-educated during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. So they are sent off to a mountain village for their re-education and the story is about their time there and some secret books they read and a Chinese Seamstress they fall in love with. It was really easy to read and very good story and novel about that time period. The author is Chinese who also went through the re-education period during the cultural revolution.

Still running and yoga and a day or two cycling every now and then, nothing earth shattering. We are talking 4-5 miles of running a few days a week and 15-20 miles on the bike when I manage to get out on that thing. Yoga is going alright, it is much more difficult than I imagined and I can't begin to explain how tight my hamstrings and my pec/shoulder area is. I am trying to stretch more during the week now to see if that will help.

Another Trip to Buffalo

We made a quick trip back up to Buffalo last weekend as EZ's gma passed away. She would have turned 98 yesterday. It was wonderful that we made a trip up there last month and got to see her and the funeral was beautiful. We know she is in a happy place now and will rest in peace. It was good to see family again, and we saw some of EZ's family we haven't seen in a while.

I finished reading my 60 papers which is nice not to have that looming. But I was smart enough to volunteer to read math abstracts for an undergraduate research conference...I have 100 of those to read by next Wednesday. The more stuff I do, the more valuable I am right!

As for books, I read Flatland, which was interesting enough but not something I would call a page turner. I did enjoy the mathematical aspects to the books and the idea of what life would be like in these different dimensions. I also read Catcher in The Rye which was rather depressing and I am not sure I liked the ending but it is what it is.

God Bless You Grandma Zack.

Last Day of Summer School

Tomorrow is final exam day! Yeah!! Made it through another "semester." My class this summer started out good and slowly digressed to high school antics, but oh well, it is practically over now and I can be done with it. I have been making a dent into all the reading of freshman papers I had volunteered for, hopefully after tomorrow I will be through 45 of the 60 I have to read so I will only have 15 left.

I have taken a hiatus on the reading schedule, this happens when you are teaching summer school in the month that the Tour de France is going on. There is just no time to read when your evenings are spent watching the best cyclists in the world race up the steepest climbs possible. It has been an exciting tour all around, so it has been fun to watch. I am in the middle of reading this "math" book called Prime Obsession about the life of a mathematician Riemann. Then I just started The Code Book (another dorky math book) about the history of cryptography. It actually has started with Julius Ceasar and his famous code called the Ceasar shift and then Mary Queen of Scotts secret language. Quite interesting. Although I am reading this because I am creating a course at HPU that will use this book so I have to read it eventually.

My friend took me to this enormously large used book store and I walked out with maybe 8 new (used) books at a few dollars a piece. I have more books that I haven't read then I know what do to with. On top of the two mathy books I am reading I started a third mathy book called Flatland by Edwin Abbott. It is extremely short (less than 100 pages) and actually was not written by a mathematician but by a literary man. It was written in the late 1800's and it has all sorts of undertones about society and classes and religion but in the form of geometry. I am also reading this book because I will be assigning it in my class this fall. I have read 1/3 of it before but just never finished.

Hopefully I can finish some of these books so I can start something a little more for my pleasure than just for knowledge. I picked up a few classics that I have been wanting to read (or reread actually): The Catcher and the Rye, East of Eden, and The Jungle.

Lots of Exercise

I haven't been exercising too much lately, perhaps doing something almost every day, but nothing really hard or long. I am maxing out at 30 min of running/elliptical and I did an hour last weekend on the bike. But I had a crazy spurt of 24 hours from yesterday morning to today.

I woke up yesterday morning for a nice run, which actually wasn't too bad. The first time in a couple weeks I was able not to stop and walk for part of it. Then last night EZ and I played 45 min of tennis (we are getting much better) and then I walked for an hour with my neighbors who are trying to lose weight. Top that off with an early wake up call this morning to run to the gym and do the elliptical and that makes 4 workouts in 24 hours.

Something is seriously wrong with me. What am I training for...absolutely nothing!

On the flip side, I tried out a new recipe, some chocolate pb puppy chow mix, which is pretty good!

Strength and Flexibility

I had been talking with EZ about how I wanted to start yoga back up again. I did it for one semester back in grad school and I felt like I was regressing on flexability issues. So I had plans to start back after Europe and then the day I was going to go was the first day I got sick, so here I am finally feeling like I have the strength to make it through class.

A brand new studio opened up a couple months ago by a women in our neighborhood so I headed up there Monday night for their "basic yoga" class. I told the guy leading the class that I was extremely inflexible and he handed me the block and the strap. I didn't do too terribly except for the countless times we had to go from downward dog into the plank (think slow push up for those of you out there that don't do yoga)...and after a couple times I had no arm/shoulder strength to get me through.

Well I am way worse than I thought on the flexibility issue. Countless years of biking and running with not enough stretching has not been good to me and I couldn't do half of the yoga poses properly without a block or strap! The only thing I can do is sit on my feet thanks to year of swimming and having flexible ankles! But I know it is good for me, so I will keep going back hopefully 2x per week, first I need to at least wait for my shoulders to not hurt anymore!

Mail

This funny piece of mail came for me yesterday:




I have never been an All American (been honorable mention 3 times), but it seems so far away that I was training for triathlons. It has been almost 10 months since my last tri but seems much further than that. I looked up the rankings online and I was pretty far down the list, not even close to the AA status (I was one spot away a few years ago). And I would never think of myself as an AA anyway. I think that comes from my years of swimming and what it took to be an AA then, and I only once in high school was name AA for the 500 yd free, and I was a much better swimmer than triathlete. Or maybe not!

Nice Long Weekend

We had a relaxing long weekend, full of errands and a small get together and a little working out, oh and some good ole bocci ball! I have run a couple times and went on a easy 10 mile bike ride and it is nice to do a little bit of exercise again. My first week of summer school flew by and it is already exciting to think there is less than 3 weeks left!

I managed to volunteer for some reading papers for HPU this summer. Turns out I need to read 60 freshman papers in the next month and rate them. Doesn't that sound like a fun way to spend some of my remaining summer afternoons!

I went on a reading spree of some easy summer reading. I read Itty Bitty Lies by Mary Kay Andrews. It was a very entertaining funny story that had great characters. I would recommend this book and her other one (Hissy Fit) if you want a brainless fun read. I then read Chasing Harry Winston (author is same as Devil Wears Prada) and it was just an alright book. Not as exciting or captivating as Itty Bitty Lies, but a decent easy book to read about three best friends who make a pact to change their lives. Next up was a book called How I live Now. I think it is a "young adult" book and it won some awards. But the story follows this girl who goes to the UK to live with her cousin and a war breaks out there and basically she is left with her cousins to figure out a way to live and survive. It was a decent book, but nothing I would say was wonderful. Lastly, I read the 4th Twilight book, Breaking Dawn...it was by far the best one and it was really quick and easy to read. The novels really got pretty good on three and four, so if you can get through the first two, the last two were worth reading.

I feel like I should read something more serious, so I just started a book called Prime Obsession, which is the story of a famous mathematician and the Riemann Hypothesis. The book alternates chapters between math stuff and then history stuff. And no, I didn't pick this book up, a friend who actually read it (the nonmath chapters) read it and gave it to me saying it was pretty good.

Joys of Summer School

It is that time of year again to make a little extra money. I started up teaching summer school on Monday. It isn't bad though, 4 weeks, 2 hours a day, with a class I taught last summer. I do all my notes on my tablet, part pre done and then write on them as I go and so there is absolutely no prep for me. It is great. It is a simple class, for people who are majoring in something that only requires a basic math for the core curriculum, and I only have 10 students. I also do all my homework online, so no grading for me either. This boils down to just about a little as work possible in a short time for a decent amount of money. Money that will be spent renovating our back yard/deck area.

I am finally over the stomach bug, thank goodness. And feel so much better. I am back to eating just about what I was eating before and can handle regular foods now too, so I am going to try and do a little cardio this evening or tomorrow morning. I am getting close to finishing the last of the Twilight series. I had my doubts after the first two novels, but gave the third one a try which turned out to be good, and the 4th one is great. It is lots of teenage drama and I skim through some parts, but overall, the story is finally very entertaining and captivating. Should be done with this one in a few days.