2008 Fun Run Stats

GHIORSO-MIFFLIN SACRAMENTO THANKSGIVING DAY CELEBRITY TOXIC POTATO AWARENESS FUN RUN TO PREVENT SOLANINE POISONING

56 degrees outside

35 pictures (we are digitally obsessed)

42 minute finish time (me) (4th place)

26 post-run bagels

13 runners (2 remote, 4 for the walk, 7 for the run)

6 repeat runners from last year

4.3 mile run/2 mile walk

3 packages of t-shirt iron-on paper

2 brothers pep talking my sister out of bed to run

2 years in a row Nathan finishes first

1 map: http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/ca/fair%20oaks/822001420761

1 Great morning

2nd Annual G.M.S.T.D.C.T.P.A.F.R.T.P.S.P.

That is right: G.M.S.T.D.C.T.P.A.F.R.T.P.S.P.
This stands for:
GHIORSO-MIFFLIN SACRAMENTO THANKSGIVING DAY CELEBRITY TOXIC POTATO AWARENESS FUN RUN TO PREVENT SOLANINE POISONING

Did you know potatoes can be poisonous? If they are green they could contain harmful amounts of solanine, very dangerous.

Tomorrow morning, 12 brave souls will be running to raise awareness of the harms of green potatoes and solanine poisoning.

Here is our logo I designed. (I'll keep my day job, don't worry.)

Tomorrow I will post race results and pictures. And maybe even throw something in there about thankfullness. Possibly.

PS: Wondering what all this craziness is about? Reference: Season 4 (2007) Episode 1 of "The Office" and the Dunder-Mifflin Fun Run.

For the sake of crazy cookies!

I am writing this blog as I make cookies. After everything I have gone through up to this point (the first batch are nearly ready to emerge from the oven), I am PRAYING that my Martha Stewart attempts are successful.

I got this recipe from my awesome friend Alicia who I have known since going to Redwood. (9 years, if anyone is counting.) I bought all the ingredients the other day at the store. This morning I started to copy the recipe off email and realized I was missing brown sugar and peanut butter. I'm taking these to 20's retreat this weekend, so, if anyone is going to be friends with me then I better make some darn good cookies. Meeting people is already tough enough without poisoning them or noticing them spit your cookie out into the trash.

After an hour of humming and hawing about the wet weather outside I decide resolutely that I am walking the dog to 7-Eleven (quarter mile away) for PB and brown sugar. At this exact moment, it is drizzling pretty hard. But, once I make up my mind, right or wrong, I stick with it. So I walk. 7-Eleven does not have brown sugar. I wonder...should I get the PB and just substitute white sugar for brown? I decide yes. On the way back I decide I will walk to a farther destination, a nearby friend, to see if anyone is home to borrow brown sugar. (Still raining.) No one was home.

I get home and google "brown sugar substitutes" and read that you can substitute white sugar, but the white sugar is drier and won't provide as much flavor. Well, I can't go bringing dry flavorless cookies to a 20's retreat. So I decide to go to the nearest bigger store. Walgreens. Also no brown sugar there. At this point with various distractions it has been about two hours since I started on the cookie mixing. *Sheesh.* So finally I end up at Safeway.

Finally onto baking.

So these cookies are a Reese's variation on the christmas cookies where you put a Hershey Kiss on a peanut butter cookie. Same concept, but you bake the cookie in mini muffin tins and shove the Reese's peanut butter cup in the middle after baking for a little muffin looking treat.

Chocolate does not photograph well. I learned this attempting to be artsy (Lisa L. style) by snapping a "while I'm baking" picture.

These cookies are not fun. I suck at this. (I'm writing this midway through baking.) Self-portraits are a requirement though if I ever scrapbook this event since I'm already taking pictures.

Ok, just took the last ones out. I started to get better by the end.

I think I still prefer snickerdoodles. Or regular peanut butter cookies.

Update. I made another batch because I was worried about quantity. I mean seriously. Could 40 (good ones) really be enough? So the newer batch mixed like a champ, much softer than the first batch (led me to panic: Were the first ones good??!!) but I am just going to get over it, take them all, and hope they disappear.

x

Saturday

Saturday. Today did not feel like a weekend. The day started with me filling in as volunteer coordinator for our site. After collecting a bunch of forms and handling 19 unexpected eagle scout volunteers, I quicly realized sitting around at a table all day wasn't going to work. So I abandoned my post in order to keep people busy, inspect the construction, finish up some sheetrock, and various other odds and ends.



For this I was demoted from volunteer coordinator. SHUCKS. My co-AIM team left today, and this was a very sad occurance! I am so glad to have met them and spent time with them and so grateful God provided me with some peers on site to bond with over the trip. And they were very hard workers and we have some great inside jokes (so common for all mission trips, right?!)



In the afternoon my food distribution task was to count cars and passengers. 295 cars, 547 passengers. This job in itself is incredibly dull but when you cound backfilling as traffic controller, walk-in station aid, espanol translator, and some more volunteer delegating, the time passed quickly. All the day volunteers are friendly and eager to work. Today we had mostly families with kids and those kids were major troopers! Throwing around cases of canned goods with the finesse of a wii controller or something like that.



One of the AIM employees keeps trying to convince me to stay here as a coordinator. Believe me, I wish I could figure out a way to do that...I may have to do some logistics analysis to see if I can come back at Thanksgiving or something.



Again, sorry for the short post. I am just so tired. God is so good.





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Friday

Thanks everyone for the awesome emails and messages. They have been so encouraging.

Today has been crazy and I think we still haven't stopped but I will say, today I cur sheetrock for about 8 hours straight. And somewhere in the middle of that I learned how to measure correctly. Its been crazy. And we just got fed by some Billy Graham ministry that included some "wise" women (grandmas) singing us some beautiful songs that included choreography. It would probably be mean to be sarcastic at this point in a very public blog so I will just say, those women love the Lord.

I don't have time to write much else tonight right now but if anyone wants a 6 month job in Galveston, let me know. :). Until then the AIM folks are thinking I am going to do the job which is definitely not true.

Miss y'all!!

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Thursday and important survey!

Here is the survey: could you, or could you not, sleep in a builfding where a dead man is resting in the embalming room. I will tell you my answer: I guess - could (or will have to) along with about 20 other new friends. Puh-leeze leave a comment on here and tell me if you can handle that.



Back to seriousness:



God and I had some great negotiating today. I had been dying to tape the newly constructed walls we put up, but I couldn't remember how. So basically today I started anyhow and 2 ppl showed me what to do then - got about 3 other people to help me. An hour later a professional showed up and improved on our technique. Nonetheless, God let me work in the arena I wanted to work.



After lunch was paybacks. I was assigned to pray with cars who were entering the food distribution line. Me. The one with a stranger phobia, amongst many other problems. :) However, I accepted the challenge and...discovered...I really liked it. Well, I mean it was a great growth opportunity for me and - really valued my 1-2 minute conversations I had with the people in line. Out of the 140 or so cars I hit, very few declined prayer (although I did pracice my spanish several times! "Vamos a orar"). I laughed partway through about how I eas enjoying (shockingly) being an extrovert. 4 hours was a long time though and the last 2 were brutal but another staffer was working with me and we didn't really have the option to quit since the line never stopped.



In other news, 8 more volunteers have arrived, 7 of them that run an adventure/sports camp outside of Austin. We bonded easily over some cutthroat Phase 10 and I am glad to have some volunteers my age.



Ok. I've been typing for a long time now. I miss everyone, am laughing at all the comments, and going inside now for evening debrief.



Christy







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Day 3

Today is Wednesday, right? Today I ruined (no, "enhanced") my best thrift store/mission trip/painting shorts. Happily. Passing out bleach during food distribution.

Ok back to serious. (If I am capable of that blogging...thinking...thinking...yes sometimes I am serious). Ok today was my second full day. The morning was kind of slow with construction projects so I took a drive around to view some of the destruction. I have texted Christal 3 pictures and she is putting them up on her blog (the link to "Christal" on the side of this page. ) The pictures are of a gas station, a house, and McDonalds drive thru. Its tough to paint a picture with a mediocre camera phone.

I can 100% feel the effects of all y'alls prayers. Like yesterday I went to bed with a minor injury I figured I woud just live with for a few days. This morning: zero pain. Thank you.

The community ministries continue to be primarily food distribution at this time. Today we served over 200 cars with water, cleaning supplies, tea, popcorn, and Nutrisystem foods donated from a food bank. (Side note: those meals are tiny. No wonder celebrities lose 1,000 baby pounds in 15 minutes when on that diet. ). There are 3 food distribution sites in the area but we are the largest and we usually have ice.

7 more volunteers with AIM showed up today and are staying thru Saturday, so it will be cool to have some non-staff around and maybe they'll put us on a demolition team or something. I spoke at length with the AIM staff last night, having a very scary discussion about my dreams of missions and such.

Evenings are by far the quietest time. After dinner is when I do this - write my blog- and guiltily check facebook. I wish I could run outdoors here but the neighborhood really isn't safe. The one night we didn't have the guys pullinh night security shifts, one of the RV's got their gas siphoned. Usually I just read/write/reflect and when in doubt: sweep. There is always something to clean around here.

I have a hundred more stories about a discovery or awesome way God works, but there is a limit to my typing patience. Plus, there are 3 more days to go!

As always you can comment, email, text me, whatevs to say what's up.

Blessings,
Christy

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Day 2

Well, its only 5:17 right now, but I think the main effort for the day is nearly done.



Most of the team of college students and I spent the morning continuing the gutting and rebuilding of the funeral home we are in. Since the owner has given us most of the area for a year, we are working to finish a few of the rooms asap so ge can continue to run his business from the space he is keeping.



I heart work gloves. It is truly amazing how much of a difference they make.



This afternoon we spent 4 hours distributing food to locals who drove past in their cars. They ranged in social class and kindness. Most were very grateful although some were manipulative. We probably had...500 empty boxes until a dump truck came by and we crushed all of them. I was amazed. Talk about provision!



I expect to be sore tomorrow but luckily we are getting additional day volunteers tomorrow. thankfully, the students here are a fun team, we are just lacking a bit of organization/experience at times.



I think that's all for today...

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Day 1: arrival in Galveston

Um, wow. I had a running list of topics to write about based on my drive to Galveston but they are kinda blown away in comparison to actually being here.



So, not even 7 days ago, I complained that a stranger was babbling to me in Starbucks (10/1 blog "Stranger Danger part 1). Well, today to stay alert on my drive...I followed his advice and ate sunflower seeds. Which in fact are a huge pain to eat and crunch, but I found it pretty hilarious that I would end up embracing his advice. Taking Katies advice, I am trying to remember that every encounter with a stranger is an opportunity to show them Christ. So I was at Dairy Queen (too hot to resist a blizzard) when I thought the waitstaff was super friendly. Then on the counter...a stack of Daily Bread devotionals. Nice. I snagged one.



So, I thought it was flabbergasting when I saw a boat, a decently lkarge one, like bigger than a ski boat, chilling by the side of the freeway as I became increasingly closer to Galveston. That was until I saw, no joke, at least 5 of them in a row against a highway cement thing a couple miles. I really hope I can get a photo tomorrow. My camera was packed and it was getting too dark.



I'm not sure what the length restrictions are for this type of blog (I'm emailing it from my blackberry) so I will finish the next part in a second email. ... And then I will be smart and email the second email first so hopefully you, my faithful reader and prayer warrior, can read in sequence. Oh and please, feel free to leave comments even if you don't get an account because they will go to my email.

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Day 1, part 2

Ok so arrival in downtown Galveston was shocking. I mean mouth gaping. I saw entire buildings collapsed. That's all I can really say except I am getting out there tomorrow with my camera and also camera phone and Christal has promised that if I text her some pics she will post them to her blog, or, maybe I will give her my password. :)



So I'm staying in a funeral home. Yep, if you want to know what an embalming room looks like...I am now an experienced source of information. Luckily we are sleeping in some other rooms. The boys are sleeping with (empty) caskets.



There is some sort of "masters" program (the students seem much younger) or college replacement/ministry thing where a team of people are running the place.

Tomorrow we are doing food distribution as they are still gathering resources and teams to do demolition. I should be meeting the other AIM volunteers and staff tomorrow, so I don't know if I will be hanging with them or if we are blending into this student team. Time will tell!



Thanks again for your prayers...I'm praying that I will be useful tomorrow and that assignments and stuff start to fall into place. The main leaders are down at the beach (evening debrief, sorta) so I probably won't meet the rest of the gang til breakfast.



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20 Hours til Galveston!

Tomorrow I am flying to Dallas, landing around noon, and dropping my computer off at work (for it to get fixed!) and then making the 6 or so hour drive down to Galveston, Texas. If I haven’t already told you, I am going with AIM (Adventures in Missions) to do hurricane relief work. I have been told I will be doing mostly house demolition (about 4 feet of water damage – so gotta remove all that moldy stuff) and helping residents move their stuff out, cleaning up wreckage, distributing supplies, and probably some prayer walking and evangelism.

I have had mixed feelings about this opportunity. When I first got a communication from AIM asking for volunteers, I was instantly drawn in. I almost went on another mission trip with AIM and so I am familiar with their organization. But the details seemed to fit together so quickly and easily that I was almost skeptical [When I write this now, like 2 weeks later, I’m thinking to myself “duh, that was so God”]. I was critical of myself and my motives for pursuing the trip. I felt like without some HUGE calling or commissioning that for some reason the trip wouldn’t be glorifying to Him, that working for the sake of working (and having the availability to do so) was just…coincidental and good Samaritan-ish.

Until today. Praise the Lord. I was praying about the trip, and feeling quite unemotional about it. I could feel myself withdrawing, conserving my energy the way I do as I gear up for most big, energy consuming trips and activities. (Its like my body has to build up its reserves.) So I was praying about the trip, and wondering a bit more about what to expect when I got there. That’s just it – I don’t HAVE expectations! Aside from listing what I *think* I might be doing at the beginning of this email, and knowing I am sleeping in an old gutted funeral home and showering in an R.V., I actually have no clue what the week will be like.

I feel like I heard God say, “and when you get there, that’s when you’ll know. I’m saving the passion of the trip right now, as a secret from you, because when you get there is when you are going to fall in love with what you are doing and I am going to use you beyond what you think your limits are.” And that made me REALLY excited about the trip. That’s when I knew – and that this trip is the right thing to be doing.
Narrator: And then Christy smiled, content in the Lord.

And if you are now humming the “That’s when you’ll know” song from Enchanted, I’m sorry. If it is any consolation, I am too.

TEST

This is a test of a remote blog entry. Factoid: I have 23 tank tops in my dresser. 14 are from Old Navy. Scary.

Half Marathon

I'm still training for my next half marathon. Since 9/1 I've logged 52 miles. (Dang - I should have added up frisbee time and swim laps too. Oh well.) My last race was at a 11:29 pace (better than what I thought I could do) and so far in training I've been able to hit 11:15 and even under pretty consistently. (Even when I walk - I guess I sprint after that to catch up). I have learned - I am a MUCH better jogger when I am not melting in the heat. (Who wouldn't be?) 10/26 is the big day!
I'm not sure how much training I'll be able to do while I'm in Galveston, but I figure the manual demolition labor will at least keep me in shape. Thats what they mean when they say "strength" training, right?

Germ Survey

Here's an extremely relevant discussion topic. (NOT)

If/when you get a starbucks drink and you pony up to the bar for extra milk, sweetener, whatever...WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE LID???

For a long time, I used to "protect" the "inside" area from germs by putting my lid on the counter like the first picture.

Then I got to thinking, that this meant putting the mouth/sippy area directly on the counter. So then I started putting the lid down like the SECOND picture, realizing that the edges of the lid that are actually touching the table, are not parts of the cup that ever touch my drink or mouth. So...this is my less-germy methodology now. And check it out..."X" coffee - DECAF in the mornings...for the sole reason of not being addicted and needing coffee on my off-work/non travel days.

Question: Have you ever thought of this? Do you just hold the lid in your hand the entire time? Does anyone else have advice out there?

103

I just completed my 103rd expense statement. Well, technically I've done more than that with pre-PRISM trips, pre-expenses, and supplementals. But I was trying to figure out exactly how many trips I've made for this project. I guess 103 is my best guess. A few of those are definitely 2 week trips, however...I would guess probably 4-8 of them. That is a lot of weeks!

If you were to look at my expenses, you would see that like 80% of all my meals are eaten at Benihana (sushi - it is across from my Dallas hotel), PF Changs, Panera, and Starbucks. I guess I am a creature of habit.

Speaking of a trip I won't be making today...I won't be running! (I don't think.) I played Ultimate yesterday for a long time in too-small cleats. Ouch! I'm hoping to swim, if I can find a gym in the area.

I'm working from San Jose this week, from "home" actually, its very nice. Murray, pictured below, and I are hanging out. We are about to walk to 7-Eleven for some caffeine. I had a wild idea to go off of my morning coffee...stupid...so for now I'll be needing a lunchtime caffeine burst as I wean my body off.

For Labor Day, I went to a BBQ with 20's from church. It was really nice. (And played Ultimate-also nice - blisters - not nice). It was the perfect way to spend a paid work holiday (not doing real work). I also squeezed in a morning run, semi-prepping for another half-marathon with Beth. What did you do?????!!!!!!!!!!

Google Texting, Part 2

I was just looking at some old posts and saw my July 19th post about Google texting. If it hasn't convinced you to convert to Google texting, then you need to reread it until you reach that point.

We used the google translation function often on our trip. Unfortunately, "Supresso" in Italian also means "supresso" in English, so it was not helping us in discovering that our train was cancelled due to a rail strike. Other than that, however, it was usually helpful.

Ok thats all. :)

Google Texting: A New Era

So, as you may know, my mom and I are off for Europe tomorrow. (I know you are never supposed to post that personal stuff, but, whatever.) We will be visiting the following cities: London, Rome, Pompeii, Florence, Venice, Lugano, Murren, Munich, Rothenburg, Amsterdam, and Brussels. I'll try to post from an internet cafe, perhaps. (I can still get texts and emails on my phone)

In my absence I will leave you with this tidbit of very valuable information:

Google Texting
If you aren’t already google texting, you probably need to start. (Obviously you are internet savvy already, so join the mobile club). Google Text is phone number 46645 (GOOGL). Here’s what you can use this for:
Phone Numbers/Addresses/general 411. Text “Starbucks, Goleta CA” to get a list of the ones nearby.
Weather. Text “Weather, 93117”
Flight updates. Text “Flight Status: AA 134" (or something like that)
Movies: “Dark Knight, 93117” for listings
Translations: “Translate cama Spanish to English”
Definitions. Text “Definition: ”
Um…this is what I use it for mostly…you can also get directions…and I think a slew of other services, which you can google to figure out. Enjoy!

So, so, so THE RACE!! Its been 3 days of recovery since the half and I can happily say I have been wearing heels since yesterday. Sunday and Monday were kind of like learning to walk again though. Recovery aside, I’m sure you want to hear about the running!

So I ran the half marathon with my Aunt Beth. (Correction: she ran it much faster than I did). We had to be AT the field by 6:30am before the roads got closed off. Needless to say, it was a pretty early morning for me since I was determined to get my beloved Starbucks Misto before the race. Some “real athletes” would never drink caffeine or coffee before a race but its pretty much a morning necessity for me, and I drank it by 7:00 which left plenty of time to hit el bano prior to our 8am start time. At 5:30 am I woke up to my alarm (after not sleeping very well, and a dream at 2am that I missed the race but was still trying to get my Starbucks at the local high school) and a bunch of text messages from well-wishing friends. It was 44 degrees outside and very windy.

When Beth and I got to the starting field, it was still freezing and we were tired. We hung out mostly in the car resting. (And I did my hair.) (Yes, running requires doing hair. Its called bobby-pinning my bangs out of the way. [example shown in pre-race car picture] And no, it does not take longer than about 3 minutes). Well, finally 8am rolled around and we sauntered out with the other 3500 people running too. Although my finishing time goal was under 3 hours, I decided to try following the 2:30 finishing time pacer runner for a mile to see if I could keep up. Turned out, I could keep up. I even thought about passing her, but I did not want to fall victim to the “starting out too fast and running out of energy” theme. So I decided to stay with her for an hour and see how things went. By the beginning of the second hour (and my first energy gel) it was all I could do to stay up with the 2:30 group. I was starting to get bored of running and starting to approach my normal training run limits – 6 to 8 miles (and usually some walking along the way!) I held on to the 2:30 group until about 1:45 into the race. Then we had an uphill bend coming, so I prepped with my second energy gel. Once we got to the top of the hill, I truly unfocused my view and started just staring at the road in front of the pacers’ feet. Doing this blocked everything out and I began to slowly, slowly, slowly pull in FRONT of the 2:30 group. This kind of shocked me. At mile 10 (granted, my longest training run was 8 miles) I was probably about 30 seconds ahead of the 2:30 group but my legs were dying and I wanted to never run again. Somehow my best music started playing on my ipod and I zoned out again to that. At this point I was a little nervous because I didn’t know the way (although plenty of runners to follow) but most people around me were losing steam. I started to pass them, hating every step, but just wanting to finish. The last 3 miles, in retrospect, I guess seemed pretty quick and I sprinted the last .1 mile into the baseball field where the announcers and finish line was. I found out later that night my finish time was 2:27:24.9. I met all 3 of my ½ marathon goals: 1) to finish 2) to run the whole thing 3) to run it in under 2:30. I honestly was saving the 3rd goal for my second ½ marathon, now it looks like I’ll actually have to train tough to beat that if/when I do my next race.

I had blisters on both feet, but they’ve mostly healed now. I have been pretty unmotivated to do much – post runners’ high, I guess, but apparently this is decently normal after a big athletic endeavor.

So…I still like running…but I want to go back to more swimming, climbing, and racquetball too!!

Monday night I saw Tara, Kyle, and Kristin at the Placer House and we hung out a bit in the hot tub. Kyle is growing so much and is so hilarious!!

4 days to Race Day!

I am excited about Sunday’s half-marathon. I know I won’t have a great finishing time, but I’ve learned a lot about running in the past 3 months and I think after this I’ll stick to improving my speed for a while and then run another one. I’ve still been experimenting with energy gels, although energy gels AND energy drinks should not be combined on the same run because then your run will be over. My favorite is vanilla or chocolate Gu, and then next favorite is Power Bar (I think) Chocolate. I tried some fruity ones, and a Clif Bar (I think?) brand one and those were just awful. I love running with caffeinated “Invigorating Propel” or “G2” Gatorade because mentally (and physically) the caffeine really makes a difference.

My goal for the race Sunday is to shuffle along at a 12 minute mile pace. Running straight through this would put me finishing at 2:36. I’m sure I’ll stop for water/gels/bathroom along the way, so I’ll probably be more like 2:50, but I’m hoping since I like to sprint at the end of most of my runs that I can average a faster pace than 12 minute miles. (I like to set low expectations).

I was actually hoping to document this training process, along with concepts of training while traveling/keeping fit on the road to write into an article for a magazine, so I’ve been taking some pictures along the way (a few) and brainstorming what to write about. I don’t know if I’ll have the time/ambition to actually write the article, but hey, why not?! It might not make a runner magazine, but those corporate/travel magazines are always talking about exercising while on the road, etc, so maybe I could try there. Anyhow. That’s a not-so widely known interest of mine.

I’m putting in a post-run picture, mostly because blogs are more fun with pictures. I don’t mean them to always be of ME, not trying to be self-centered, but, that just happens to be what has been near my camera.

In other fun worlds, last week in Dallas it snowed TWICE while I was there. I took a picture in my hotel room to document 1) the lightweight blue hooded sweatshirt I brought from California and 2) the mega-weight jacket someone from work brought me so I wouldn’t freeze. My coworkers love me. 

Lastly. Between when I wrote this blog in MS Word and logged into my blogger to post, I forgot my blogger password. Does anyone else have trouble reading those security things where they distort a word and make you human-read it and type it in to validate that you aren’t some computer spammer?! Lately I have been having issues with those things!!

Today I bathed our Cat!!!

Hello. This has been a very eventful week but I think the most bizarre event had to be today's cat washing. Our oldest cat, Rudolph, is a long haired cat we've have forever. At Christmas I noticed poop stuck to his tail and he obviously wasn't really able to clean himself. On top of that, he acted like his tail was all hurt and wouldn't let you touch him. Fast forward to the end of January. He hasn't really been able to clean himself off (still!) and his hair is soooooo matted, its horrible. There was this one clump of hair at his chest that i could pretty much clench in my entire hand (like bigger than an apricot or something).


So, I knew I had to do something. I had just come back from a run (wimped out after 5 miles-too dark and I'm a wimp) so I figured as long as I was sweaty and disgusting, I might as well do the job. I figured since my sister has a little 1/2 sized bathroom, I could just clear off the counters and floor and Rudy and I could duke it out until he was clean.



It turned out I got a helper. Brenda came over. I invited her into the bathroom for the cat washing mostly to keep me company, but she ended up helping too. I filled the sink with warm soapy water and got some scissors to cut off the clumps of hair. Rudolph of course freaked when I first set him into the sink, ("Claws come out, scene 1") but once I grabbed his arms (little scared of squashing him) and held him against my body with his butt in the sink, he pretty much calmed down. I'm sure it was the soothing, "Sshhh, shhhhh, its ok, Rudy, its OK" that made a difference. Yeah right. So after his initial shock I think he figured out that fighting wasn't going to help much. Brenda and I didn't know what to do so we started cutting off some of the clumps that we could sort of get to while we waited for his nasty tail area to soak for a while.



I really, really wish we had gotten a picture of poor Rudolph during the bath. He was really good, except for when he clawed Brenda ("Claws come out, scene 2") and then towards the end ("Claws, 3") when he was getting tired of being washed. We sorta tried to shampoo him a bit (he still needs to be like shaved or something) but at least he is cleaner than before. We wrapped him up in a towel and Nathan came to check on us. He started purring for Brenda right away and looking at us with these tortured eyes. We gave him some milk and left him in the bathroom for a while to dry off.



After a while we checked on him, he was dying to get out but still wet so we left him in there. Finally I let him into the laundry room and tried to cut off some more hair clumps. He got tired of that after a bit so I finally let him go outside. Poor guy. Then I decided to try to get a picture of his terrible looking tail, which, of course he wasn't too thrilled about the idea of me getting close enough to him again.

So finally this story comes to an end, here are a couple pictures of Rudy, the Bathers, and how horrid and mangy he still looks. (I might try again tomorrow).

1/2 Marathon Training, Continued

This has been an interesting week.

First of all, I am having this recurring dream of running through the airport. SERIOUSLY! The theme is usually that I’m going to Europe, meeting a friend or somebody at a connecting airport, I’m running late, and forgot my passport. So I am running back and forth between the car looking for my passport and the security line and it seems like miles and miles between the two, running with all the luggage. Strange.

So along the running theme, I am trying to test out energy gels. I figure with a run of 13 miles, I need to keep my body fueled properly. I am very into the science/technique of running (ahem, jogging) right now. I’m trying to read up on what a good diet is for runners, what to eat before and after a run, etc. The whole concept of a higher carb diet is fun and shocking since the Adkins push years ago carbs have seemed so off-limits. Not that I really diet or anything, I just usually try not to go on a carb overload.

So yesterday on my 6 mile distance run I tried the vanilla power bar gel. It was super syrupy. I don’t know if I really needed it, but I ate ½ on mile 4 and about ½ of what was left somewhere at mile 5 or so. I was pretty bored running on the treadmill. I was thinking, “geez what is the point of this??!!” I think I prefer running outside but LAX isn’t exactly an ideal area for that.

Lastly, here is the link to the web page in case anyone else wants to sign up. There is a rule of no ipods/music players, which apparently is new, and I guess not all races enforce it. I’m not sure how it’ll be happening for this race.

http://www.fleetfeetsacramento.com/shamrockn-half-marathon-5km

Oh yeah, and this week at work sucked. I tried to quit Tuesday but after getting some good food in me and a good nights rest and a resolution to not talk to the person driving me NUTS, I am starting to tolerate the project again. Wednesday I actually had to bring my regular misto drink AND a java chip frap (light) to work to nurse my attitude back to health. (That and some prayer.) 76 days until the project “go live.” Maybe in some other blog I’ll actually describe what some of these project terms mean. Booooring!

Christy is new to blogging

Well hello there. Sarah was telling me I should start a blog since I'm kind of tired of myspace. Today when I was running (I always talk to myself) I started to mentally write this blog so here I am, I guess, with a blog!

I just started running - um, excuse me, JOGGING, a lot more lately and so I also figured maybe I can track some of my experiences on here in an attempt to keep up with it. I'm training for a half-marathon in Sacramento on March 16th.

So why shamrock80 for the blog name? Well, because shamrock was taken. Why Shamrock? I dunno. I didn't want my real name, and since Nathan has an amazing puppy and it took 3 days to name him and during that time I thought, "gee, I'd like to name my dog Shamrock" and it kind of stuck. SO, here I am, permanently Shamrock80 the blogger.

I suppose I could try and get some pictures up on this but since I am still a newbie and I left my camera at my dad's house, that won't be happening. At least this is a start!