Adventures in Paradise

Happy Coincidence

I make a handful of business trips to London every year and on my most recent trip, I stopped in at Liberty. It's a big department store with a big reputation. I think a long time ago it used to be a crafter's dream, but now it's mostly really high end stuff that doesn't always appeal to me. The yarn selection is limited to Rowan Yarns and while I love them, my stash is sufficient, and mostly high end. And while my fabric stash is also sufficient, it's only recently that I've discovered garment quality fabric outside of Joann's. And Liberty fabrics are stunning - visually, although I don't actually like busy little florals, and in a tactile sense - the lawn is famous for a reason. On this trip I ran into a print called "Queue for the Zoo" and picked up a yard for my animal obsessed Puppy. Then I ended up having a meeting scheduled in Washington, DC and the timing was such that if I took some extra leave, the nanny could go get some dental work taken care of and the Puppy and I could enjoy a little together time, including a visit to the National Zoo, of course.

Naturally, the dress needed to be made. I wanted to make something cute and flowy, but didn't want to deal with gathering and the like, so I went with a dress I'd seen online a few times, Sunki, by Figgy's. Everyone who made it online seemed to love it and it looked really neat. I'll admit I'm not the most proficient seamstress, but I didn't love the pattern so much. 

Those green side panels are what makes the dress, and the directions for them are a mess. The pattern piece and the diagram in the directions are not shaped the same, which led me to spend quite some time looking at the pdf to be sure there wasn't something I'd missed. Then I went looking for a tutorial and the best one I could find just said something along the lines of "I just manipulated the fabric so that it fit." So that's what I did, and it turned out okay after several attempts, but there's still a tuck in the top of the right pocket/panel because I just couldn't bear to rip again for something that was going onto a toddler body in constant motion.  The second panel turned out better and if I make the dress again, it will be less frustrating. Still - I don't think it's too much to ask for the drawing to match the actual pattern piece. That's not hand holding, that's accuracy. The 2T is wide on the Puppy, but the 18M woulnd't have fit for long, so I don't mind. I did chop off a whole lot of length for my tiny girl.

She happily wears the dress for one reason...ELEPHANTS! That's her signing Elephant in ASL after she got to see her first one in person. She makes the sign (and trumpets like a tiny elephant) whenever she sees the dress. It was a bit warm for leggings, but my enthusiastic girl was running out of skin on her knees from several big tumbles, and I knew she'd be rushing about like a crazy person, so I added some protection for the day.

This was my first invisible zipper and I either did not iron the zipper flat enough, or the cheapo invisible zippers I bought were just not great (you get what you pay for). Still, it works, it's just not invisible. We could have sat here all day staring at the waterfall. This was the only nice day of our trip, it rained like mad the other days, including the day we ran the 5K in honor of Tee. The group of us thought it was the  perfect way to honor our friend...a run, cheering for all the other runners from the finish line, dancing in the event area after the race ended, and a Starbucks stop before going our separate ways. We'd rather be doing it with her, but if we can no longer do so, then at least we can do it right for her.

 

Track Me!

All through last week I was feeling fine. The Army Tem-Miler was fun, especially since I took it easy. One good solid run to get rid of the chest cold followed by my last long run yesterday, which I did much faster than I'd intended.

I started with a group and dropped back around mile 2 because they were going faster than I like to start, and I needed to remove the fleece I'd started with. I caught up to a pair that had stopped to do the same around mile 4 and ran the last six with one of them. We actually stopped at mile 5 when the three of us met up with the two guys they'd been running with (turns out to be a husband and a friend of the pair I ran with) and we started up again after a short rest. That's not my preferred practice because I'm always afraid that I won't get started up again after I stop moving. Still, the guys left us behind around mile 6 and one of the women dropped back shortly after that. I kept trying to slow down to keep her with us because I felt like they'd have stayed together if I hadn't joined in, but the speedier runner just kept going, so I adjusted and kept up. I did NOT plan to be running 9 minute miles, but that's what we did. Mind you, the route we ran is five miles uphill and the five miles downhill. The profile looks sort of like the Little Prince's drawing of a snake eating an elephant.

Anyway, even though I was going much faster than I'd planned, I managed to have a full-on conversation the whole time. Turns out my partner grew up a Navy brat and she was living in the Bay Area for part of the time I was living there. Her dad worked at the Naval Station that shared space with the NASA installation where my mom worked. How funny is that?

But now I'm getting butterflies. Big butterflies. I worry that I've heaped my expectations too high. I ran last year in 5 hours and 15 minutes, which is SLOW, but beat all the max allowable times by more than an hour. I want to run this race in under 5 hours, which is a 15 minute reduction in time. I beat my half marathon record by 15 minutes in September at the Navy Air Force Half Marathon, so I know I can do it - but can I sustain it for a full 26.2 miles? Argh.

Anyway - track me via this link : Runner Broadcast Service

My bib number is 13970.

So that there's not a photo-less post, here's the dog I'm currently fostering, Leo. I said I wasn't going to foster until after the race, but I'm a sucker and it's getting cold in DC, so the boarding facility we use that only has outdoor kennels is closing in the next couple of weeks. So, we need to get pups into foster.

Leo is about 40 lbs, hound mix, and as my dog walker calls him a "gentle giant". As long as he gets along with Harvey, he gets to stay.

The Marines keep e-mailing me like I have a marathon to run in 8 days or so. They're right, of course, but I'm not sure I apprecaite the reminder as I hack my way out of a chest cold. Better last week than next, though. I managed to run the Army Ten Miler on Sunday at nowhere near my best pace, but I spent a lot of time finding places to clear my lungs of the gunk that I was coughing up. (Pretty picture, eh? Welcome to distance running where discussion of bodily fluids seems to be inevitible.) I did a couple of trapeze lessons during the week, but hadn't made it out to run, even what has been my habitual run to work on Wednesdays thanks to a days-long deluge. So, I hauled myself out midday yesterday for a six mile run. It's finally cool enough most days to run in the afternoon again. I'll probably still do some early mornings, but daytime gives you neat views, like this one on my way back to the Pentagon.

I'm a Bad Blogger

But everyone has already figured that out. Right now I feel more over-scheduled than a high school junior who has just figured out she needs to pad her resume if she wants to get accepted to a good school. There's work, of course. That's pretty much 7:30 - 5:00 on weekdays.

Then there's volunteering - I open the community dog park twice a week, but since I do that on my morning walk, it's not really a big deal. There are, of course, the dogs themselves, since I am still fostering. My most recent pups:

Heidi was very short-term - I picked her up on Thursday afternoon and she went home with a new (pre-approved, we don't do same day adoptions,) family on Saturday afternoon. She is a big girl - about 65 lbs and needed to gain 10-15. We think Aussie mixed with a guardian dog-type like Anatolian Shepherd. Wonderful girl.

And this is Brie. She stayed with me for almost two months. Niko adored her, but then, my Niko has never met a dog he didn't like. Brie went to a home with a Stay-at-Home-Mom, a 5 year old, and a deaf canine brother - one reason she was picked is that she's so good at coming when called that she cues her new brother to come - when you live on a four acre farm, that's important! (Also, does that sound like the greatest life ever for a high energy dog, or what?)

I'm foster dog free for the moment, because there's the non-volunteer aspects of my life taking precedence right now. For one thing, the Marine Corps Marathon is ten(!) days away.

 

 The weekend of my longest scheduled run was, predictably, while I was supposed to be away on travel. So, I made the best of it and ran 21 miles along Sydney Harbor. (This was a work trip, did I mention that my life, busy as it is, does not suck?) For real, I could retire to Australia.

Last weekend was the Army Ten Miler, which I did with a cold I caught in Australia, and so was not the best 10 miler I've had. But that's okay, because I'm supposed to be backing down a little. This Sunday is a 12 mile run, and then the big one. And ten weeks after that (give or take)...the Goofy Challenge at Disney World. That would be a half marathon on Saturday followed by the full marathon on Sunday. No, I don't know why I thought this was a good idea either.

There's trapeze (and other circus fitness stuff), Zip Zap Circus (more volunteering), travel and yeah... I need a vacation. Knitting - did a bunch on the multiple-day spanning airline trips but it was hours of stockinette in 4 ply yarn, so there's actually not much to show for it. I'm starting to think this may need to become a non-knitting blog if it's going to stay in business. For instance, I take some really cool pics when I run...

 

It's Official

I'm a marathoner. (Okay, you saw that in a previous post, but now I have the pictures from the race photographers.)

Somewhere around Mile 19, with the Capitol in the background and less than a mile to reach the 14th St Bridge, which is one of the timed cut-off points. (I made it by more than an hour, which was nice.)

Mile 23-ish...Crystal City, which wasn't quite as bad as I'd thought it might. Lots of crowd support and random people offering candy and shots of alcohol in this stretch. No, I did not partake in either.

I'm not entirely sure where this is, though I think it's close to the finish. I didn't take the arm warmers off until past Mile 20, it's not Crystal City, and I'm running alone when I had a friend from 25 to 26. More importantly, when I really magnify the image, it looks like the watch has died, which happened about half a mile before the finish. Note to others: Garmin thinks you should have a sub-5:00 marathon to use thier entry-level GPS watch. At least it's sufficient to cover all my training runs. I'm running and smiling, so I'm going to say that I saw the finish line at this point.

This photo does not at all show how incredibly my feet were hurting. They set up stations all around the monument for the finishers, but as with everything, there's a huge line for the ones people see right after they cross the line and none on the backside. I walked right up to this photographer, got my pic taken and limped off the to Team in Training tent to find my friends.

I promised myself this shirt when I finished the marathon. I admit to ordering it early, but left it in its package until Monday. If you don't know the story of The Blerch, go visit The Oatmeal and learn why he runs insane distances.

Happy Feet (Or Not)

So, new this year has been serious running. I've always run, thanks to the Navy's requirements, and I even ran for pleasure a bit, especially when there is good scenery. I just never ran far because it didn't feel good. Then one of my friends got involved with a running group and I sort of followed along...first to the Nike Women's Half Marathon this March.

Here, with a random person I ran with from Mile 10 to 13.1. Then I convinced myself that I could totally do a marathon, but I should do it with a group, so I signed up for Team in Training. (Thanks to those of you who donated!) On the way to the Marine Corps Marathon, I ran a 5k Color Run as a recovery run after a long 18 mile training run. We started like this...

And after the run we looked a lot like this litte girl, only not so adorable.

My final training run a week before the marathon was the Army Ten Miler, which covers a lot of the same ground as the marathon, which was nice. Even better, I ran into a shipmate from my very first ship at bag drop-off.

And at the first water stop, around mile 2.5, I ran into a pair of classmates from the War College. They were running the ATM as their big race and I was using it as a training run, so we only ran together for about a mile, but we found each other again at the finish, which was nice.

Finally, my race week arrived and I rested almost completely. Almost  because I did have one trapeze class and the dog doesn't walk himself. Sunday came bright, early and thankfully about ten degrees warmer than the previous Sunday. I didn't need the gloves or headband I'd dug out. I did use arm warmers since I wore a short sleeved shirt rather than a long sleeved one.

Twenty minutes after the canon fired, I made it to the starting line. That's what happens when you're a slow runner, so I don't mind too much. Better than being trampled by the speedy folks in front. I worked hard through the race, and made it to the half more than ten minutes faster than I did to 13.1 in the March race. I saw my first friend at the mile 16 water stop where she'd been volunteering. She ran with me for close to a mile, then turned right towards the finish when I broke right to run the Mall. I ran into my second friend after crossing the soul-sucking 14th Street Bridge, which totally picked me up. After the four or so miles in Crystal City, I ran into both friends again as the route turned onto the final stretch. One got a picture of me (walking, sadly) right at mile 25.

Waving AND smiling five hours into my run. The other friend, on my left in the picture, ran with me to the final turn, and did the coolest thing. She pointed at the 26 mile marker and said "Do you see the sign? Take a moment and take that in...you've run 26 miles." That will be one of the defining moments of my life, I think. So, slow or not, I finished #17,000 something overall and just over #1,000 in my age group (I looked it up but can't remember). 5 hours and 15 minutes...I didn't stop (except a pee break around mile 14) and I never felt like I couldn't finish, which astonished me.

Moments after I crossed the finish line, my feet started to ache horribly and the left hip and knee that hurt from about mile 17 on started demanding my attention, but I managed to keep myself upright long enough to check out from the TNT group and find my wonderful, wonderful friends. I'd have made it without them, but I don't know that I would have been as happy or as fast at the end.

I'm already mentally preparing for a couple of half marathons in the winter, and yes, I am really thinking about another marathon. Don't think I'll do more than one a year because the training is so time-intensive, but I had a lot of fun both training and racing.

More Excuses...

I didn't mean to drop so completely offline again, really. It's been a long couple of months since I went back to work.

First, I found a lump in my left breast and while I wasn't too concerned (size, shape, and family history told me cyst or fibroid), I still made an appointment for a mammogram. All went well until they came back asking for more pictures...of the other breast. That freaked me out a bit, but in the end, all is well.

Then in one weekend, I did a 16 mile run on Saturday, drove up to Penn State on Sunday to commission one of my former Sailors, and after that, flew to Newport, RI to attend the funeral of my second CO. On the way home, with my friend and former boss from that ship watched the events at the Navy Yard unfold in real time. I checked Facebook and e-mail looking for updates from the dozens of friends who work at the Yard, and particularly those who worked in Building 197. While all of my close friends were safe, one of my acquantainces was killed. Returning home was eerie, because so much of the city in the area was still closed - I live within walking distance of the Navy Yard and the shooter's hotel is about a block away from my home.

So that was a rollercoaster of a weekend. The White House/Capitol Hill car incident and the guy who set himself on fire in front of the Air and Space Museum all happened within blocks of my home and on one of my regular running routes. In fact, the self-immolation thing happened about three hours after I finished my 20 mile run, which happened to have passed that exact spot four times as I ran laps around the Mall. It's DC and it's been fundamentally crazy, as everyone in the country and world have (re)discovered recently.

And then there's the dogs...Austin went to his forever home and his new family tells me they can't imagine life without him. Then I got Paca, another lovely border collie mix. She and Harvey were fast friends, even playing with each other happily. She went to her forever home last week and I brought home Osita.

Happy, beautiful girl. Who wants to eat cats. Not cool. So she's looking for another foster AND/OR a forever home without cats or small dogs. And a job. We're working on that.

So I brought home Niko, who has been much more kitty friendly.

(Also, there's a new, lime green couch. At 90 inches, it is long enough for the Brown Shoe to lay full length. And it looks good against my purple wall.) Niko is a little bit lame, with a bad right rear leg. Maybe an old, poorly healed break or maybe it's congenital, but the muscle is atrophied and it doesn't bend much. The first few days were rough with all the stairs in my house, but it only took a day and a half (with a little coaxing) to climb the stairs by himself. Now he races me up the stairs and jumps onto the bed and couch without invitation. The next big task is down the stairs, which he does, but only reluctantly.

And then there's the running - but I'll save that for later. Assuming I survive Sunday.

If you want to track me, you can go here and use the bib number.

 

Zorbing!

This morning I blew off the planned 14 mile run with Team in Training (hey, just because I met the minimum doesn't mean you can't still donate!) to do something a little more...extreme...with some of my trapeze friends. Zorbing. Or, since that's a different brand, my friends and I technically rode "OGO Balls" downhill.

Yep, we rode downhill in giant hamster balls.

Essentially, they take a big inflatable ball and suspend it inside an even larger inflatable ball. Add a dozen gallons of cold, fresh, water and put a bunch of people inside....then roll it down a hill. Yes, another way for ski resorts to make money off their slopes during the off season. And worth every minute of the four hours of driving and the $39 cost for a day of adventures at Ski Roundtop in PA.

The eight of us gathered at the top of the hill at about noon, for a bone-dry "before" shot:

And thanks to a couple of waterproof cameras, we got some neat video and pictures through the whole process. I don't have the video, but hopefully I'll get some soon. In the meantime, this one was just before we left for ride #3.

(You can see the GoPro I was wearing...it got some neat footage!)

Four runs took about two hours, but between time constraints for two of our group and the massive group of kids that arrived at the end of our fourth run, we decided to call it a day and explore the other options. The zip lines were pretty tame given the level of extreme my group is used to dealing with, but was fun anyway. Same with the canopy climbing things...not really ropes course level, but fun. We're considering a season pass for next year. We did get the completely soaked after picture...

Of course, three of us will be paying for the fun tomorrow morning...the one in the striped sports bra is running the Annapolis Marathon, the one in purple in the middle is running 18 miles (I forget what she's training for), and I'm running 14. Still totally worth it!

Meet Austin

You knew I wouldn't last long, right? And Rural Dog Rescue needs fosters, so I brought this little dude home for a trial.(For those so inclined, they also need donations...they're treating 8 heartworm positive dogs right now!)

Austin is a young, but full grown (maybe 1-2 years old) shepherd mix. He's small, about 35 pounds, which puts him ten pounds lighter than Tipper. He also has some tummy troubles, so he needs to gain about five pounds once we get those fixed.

I wasn't sure it was going to work, but he learned pretty quickly that chasing the kitty will get him flopped onto his back. For a dominant dog, that wasn't fun. His leash walking manners were pretty rotten, too. thankfully, he's a very smart boy and after two walks he figured out that I was serious about walking nicely.

He is adorable and so sweet. He'd realy like to be a lap dog, but I've been teaching him to stay off the furniture. People here in DC can be stuffy about allowing animals on the furniture, so I figure it's safer to keep them off (at least while I'm around) and a new family can decide to let him up on the sofa.

So, the goals with Austin are to fix his tummy, keep him well-behaved on the leash, and work on basic obedience. (He's good with sit, but not so much with down or come.) I don't need to teach him to entertain himself, he's got that bit down pat.

 

I Need a Vacation

I need a vacation from my vacation. See, technically, I spent half of June and all of July on leave - that's paid vacation time for those of you who don't speak military jargon. I was able to take 45+ days because despite the fact that we get 30 days a year, many of us don't use it. And if you go over 90 days on the books (That's three years of leave accumulated), they take it away at the end of the fiscal year. This year I was facing the loss of 12 days, and up to 30 days next year. So when I found out that I couldn't report to my next job until August 26th so that the guy I'm relieving can get credit for completing a full tour, I started looking at my options.

I knew I was moving, so I got some work done, starting with the most important rooms...the kitchen

And the sewing/knitting/guest bedroom. Or at least the yarn and fabric stashes....

The yarn is organized by weight, in contrast to the fabric, which is organized by color.

Nobody who knows me will be surprised that blue and green dominate my fabric.

And then, there's what I did with my afternoons, wrangling a group of rising 6th and 7th graders into something resembling an actual circus performance.

This is part of the finale rehearsal...still trying to figure out how to get the wiggly boys on the left into something resembling balancing on each other. (They're better as comic relief.)  Performance is Wednesday afternoon - after a full week of no pratice. I'm nervous, but in the end, these kids have done somethng they never thought they'd do, be it juggling or acrobatic balancing. I'm pretty proud of them.

The marathon training continues apace, but with the limiting factor of irritated achilles tendons in both legs, a result of the move, not the training. And Tipper now has "sit" and "down" and we're working on "stay" and "come". She's had several applications submitted and then withdrawn, which makes us all sad. Maybe not Tipper. She's pretty happy where she is.

This is after she methodically emptied her crate onto the ground in front of the TV and the crate. She then settled in for a nap on the bed. When I was dressed and ready to leave this morning, she followed me down and settled into the bed. She's been doing really well, in fact I haven't crated her the last couple of days when I leave. I had stopped crating her, but then there was a spate of rug peeing, so I had to go back for a while. She's doing well.

The separation anxiety seems to be cooling off; when I sat outside for dinner tonight (strangely cool weather in DC the last few weeks) she wasn't interested in joining me outside. I tried, but she just went to the door and pawed to go in. Works for me. Me and the wine stayed outside.