Can't say I'm surprised

Yeah I'm terrible at blogging. I've started others before, and they all died a swift death. But I said I'm going to keep this up, so even if there's one post a month (or two months!), I pledge to keep it crawling along, like a handicapped snail.

Anyway, since I haven't really accomplished any more items, I thought I'd use this, a New Year's Eve post, to look back on what's done so far and to brainstorm a bit.

Items I've at least made some progress on (yes, the bar is low):
8. Keep up a blog for three years -- Okay this is just barely. I'm glad I didn't set a post-a-day requirement. I hope to use more pictures in the future. I've got some way cool apps on my iPhone that should make this fun.
10. Send 30 letters or cards (1) -- I sent a card to Lauren and Scott when they got engaged. (By the way, I'm only counting cards on which I've written a meaningful amount of words on.)
12. Weigh 150 -- This has been super fun. I'm at 157 right now, so I have almost three years to lose seven pounds. I think I can do it. Weight Watchers has been awesome. Though occasionally I still gorge myself on chocolate cake. Also, cookies are a serious weakness. But what can I say; it's still working.
13. Get a car -- Ah, the Blue Bomber. That's what Mom calls it. The car has required one repair so far, but it's working well. I drove to work today because there's no parking enforcement on New Year's Eve. Awesome.
14. See Yosemite -- Well, I got the time off work, so that's progress, right? 
15. A week on the Appalachian Trail -- Thanks to Matt, I now own a sleeping bag and an awesome headlamp. Also Mom got me some trail maps for Christmas. I think I'm eventually going to get some hiking boots, but this is pretty far down the road.
19. West Coast roadtrip -- Same as Yosemite, above. Matt might join me for the northern part.
21. Finish a triathlon -- That was awesome. Catherine and I did this in September. My only goal was to finish without having to walk during the 5k. I think next year I'll do it again but actually try for a good time. Not expecting to place or anything, but I want to push myself. Note to self: Need to buy a bike rack for the car.
22. Read 30 awesome books -- I haven't updated this on the sidebar yet, but I did finish one book. That is sad -- I should have gotten much farther on this by now. But as penance I will try to actually start making my book list today. Anyway, the one book I've finished is "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker. It's pretty awesome, and I recommend it to anyone, especially women. It talks about trusting your instincts. 
23. Grow and eat my own veggies -- The patio is pretty much ready -- I just need a few more containers for the veggies themselves. But this will have to wait for spring. It is super cold out.Oh and I also got "The Washington Post Garden Book" to help me once I start planting.
24. Throw a fancy garden party -- Ditto the progress on the patio. I also still need to buy a dining set, but there isn't a great selection out there in fall and winter, so I'll probably have to wait till spring for this, too. I did get an awesome outdoor rug, though!
28. Learn to knit -- I took a class at Stitch DC, but honestly, I'll probably have to take another one in order to make anything on my own. And I haven't worked on my scarf in a while. I should probably get on that so I can use it before it gets warm again!

I guess that's about it. Not terrible for the first few months.  In the next post, I will attempt to start compiling my book list.

Two more down!

Ack, I've been meaning to write this post for a while but have been lazy. But now I'm sitting at work on Thanksgiving with nothing to do, so now's the time, I guess.

I knocked off two more items!

13. Get a car -- I really didn't plan on doing this for a couple years, but about a month ago, something just snapped and I couldn't take it (being carless) anymore. So I looked on Craigslist and e-mailed my dad, who went a little nuts looking around for me. He eventually came up with this:

I think this is a photo the seller took. It's been spiffed up a little since then, but this is basically what it looks like. Such a cutie! Dad did a great job dealing with some issues it had, and it ended up being a pretty good deal. Right now it's parked outside the post (free parking on holidays!) and I'll take it to Thanksgiving dinner later today. It is so nice to be able to get myself places.

28. Learn to knit -- I was thinking a couple weeks back about how I hadn't been very good at keeping this project going, so I recruited Angie and Sara to join me at a knitting class in Capitol Hill. It was pretty cool. We started on a scarf, and when we're done we're supposed to take it back to them to get help finishing it off. It's pretty slow going for me because I've messed up and had to start over a couple times, but it's coming along, and I'm ready to switch yarn colors. It's going to be a light blue (shown) and darker blue.

In other news, regarding No. 12, I hit 160, which was super exciting, though I think right now I'm probably at 162 (whoops). And the fact that Thanksgiving dinner's tonight and I'm hosting people for dinner tomorrow does not bode well for my next weigh-in either. Oh yeah and I ate a million cookies at annual high-school-friends game night last night. I'm a sucker for homemade baked goods. Anyway, I am really excited about getting to 159 because being in the 150s just seems crazy to me. Also that's my original goal, but my total goal is definitely 150. Only 10(ish) to go!

Healthy, happy people

I haven't been super motivated to post, but I thought I'd at least link to this cool article on the habits of the healthiest people in the world.

Also, some progress (okay, and maybe a little backward progress):
No. 12: I've probably gained a little weight this week because I totally pigged out for my birthday. I've decided that I'm allowed a little backslide on my birthday, though. It probably would have been less if I hadn't celebrated for five days straight, but whatever. Worth it. Also I ran a 5k race last weekend with Cat and Rachel, so at least I got some exercise!

No. 14 (and 19): Lisa wants to do this awesome-sounding hike in Yosemite. I love planning!

No. 15: My bro got me a sleeping bag for my birthday! It is so awesome! I want to hug it all the time because it is so soft and fluffy!

No. 28: I signed up for a knitting class! It's just a one-day crash course, so after that I might try and get this book my cousin recommended.

How did I not see this?

So, I've been following this blog for a while. How did I not see her awesome list? I totally would have stolen a few of these.

Just keep moving

So, I signed up for a 5k. Yes, the triathlon was my exercise-y item on the list, but I really liked it, and I've enjoyed running a lot more than I thought I would. Also I get a T-shirt just for participating! Win!

In the meantime, this is a pretty interesting article. I'm tempted to reset my pedometer from miles to steps and see how many I get.

Americans Trailing World in Steps-Per-Day

U.S. adults walk about half the distance of Swiss, Australians, study finds

Trying not to flake

Man, after the excitement of crossing a big item off the list, I'm sort of hitting a wall. Arguably, several of the items are not that hard at all. But I'm being a big lazy bum. I'm thinking taking some small steps toward the fancy garden party by starting to outfit my patio. We're having a patio party soon (though not fancy), so I want it to at least be kinda cute. I've been looking at patio sets on Craigslist and elsewhere. Leaning toward yet another Ikea trip.

What I need to buy:
-outdoor rug
-dining table and chairs
-fire pit
-lighting
-planters
-plants
-trellises
-rain barrel/planter

Oof this is going to be expensive. And I still need to pay John for the gate. Which I still need to take pictures of.

In the meantime, I'm wavering between an old iron dining set that I could repaint a bright color and a nicer, newer wooden set that I wouldn't paint at all.

The wooden Ikea option: 

Ignore the random foreign words.

Or I could do an iron set and paint it a bright color, like red or pink or orange or yellow:

Not this color. More fun.

First item crossed off the list!

We went for bagels afterward!

Well, not so much "crossed off" as "italicized," because I was having trouble inserting HTML into the box that holds the list. (I wanted to do a strikethrough but it wouldn't take <s>, <strike> or <del>, so if anybody has any ideas...)

Anyway! No. 21, the triathlon, is done!


Here's how it went down, with more detail than you could possibly want. (More pictures to come when I get them from Katrina.

Catherine and I headed to my parents' house in Frederick County on Saturday night, where they treated us to an awesome pasta dinner (whole-wheat pasta to be more WW-friendly!). Mom had picked up our packets, so we got a chance to find out our race numbers (an even 100 for me, which I liked) and start times (7:50 a.m. for me). We headed to bed early because we had to be at the Frederick YMCA at 6:30 a.m. Sunday for the pre-race meeting.

I slept TERRIBLY. I was so nervous! But because I wasn't asleep anyway, it was pretty easy to get up when my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. It was cold and dark but not raining at least. We loaded all of our stuff into the car, threw the bikes on the back and drove to the Y, where the parking lot was full of cars with bike racks on the back, which amused me for some reason. There some nice guys from a bike shop checked out our bikes, put a little more air in the tires, etc., and we set up our stuff in the transition area. I wish I'd taken a picture of this area because it's kind of neat, but basically it's a parking lot full of bike racks, and everybody puts their clothes and bags and extra stuff on the ground next to their bike. Then we went inside, where they wrote our numbers on our arms (yes, it's still there, though smushed) and our ages on our legs (still not sure why, but it's kind of funny to know everyone's age). I was No. 100 of about 150 (and Cat was 92), so we had a while to wait.

As the first women were swimming, it started raining. So now it was cold and wet (and still kind of dark). Even though it meant adding a bunch of time to our transitions, we decided to bring our stuff into the locker room from the transition area. (After all, my goal was to finish, not to finish quickly). Then more waiting. We chatted with some nice ladies in the locker room, awesome women of all ages, some with kids, who do a bunch of triathlons every year. Basically they rock. I was telling these two ladies about how nervous I was, and one of them was telling me about how she just uses positive thinking, telling herself how awesome she is, how well she's doing, how easy the race is, even if she doesn't actually feel that way. People were really nice.

As it got close to the time I needed to start swimming, I got in line in a hallway outside the pool deck (it was an indoor pool at the Y). A staffer gave me a timing chip to wear around my ankle. I could see people swimming, and I was relieved to see most people weren't bothering with flip turns. Some weren't even doing freestyle. Nobody was judging, just cheering :)

Cat was close enough to me that I got to watch her swim first (she rocked it), and as she finished, they called me over to a lane and I took my turn. The swim is 300 yards, so six laps in a 25-yard pool. It seemed to go really fast, and I felt pretty great the whole time. I even found myself missing high school swim team! When I finished, I ran back into the locker room, changed out of my suit and into my underwear, shorts, shirt and sneakers. I ran back out to the transition area and hopped on my bike.

It wasn't raining anymore but the roads were wet, which made me a little nervous. The route was gorgeous, and I could see the mountain in the distance. Very cool. The ride was mostly uneventful, though when I was pulling back into the Y parking lot, I passed Katrina, Patrick and Ava, who had just arrived. They asked if I was finishing. Unfortunately, I still had to run. Boooo.

The run was advertised as a 5k, but it was actually 3.37 miles, which is more than I've run. Ever. When I first set out, my legs felt like jelly from the bike ride, but they eventually loosened up. I cramped up at one point, thought I was lost at another point and didn't know what to do with the water cup they gave me! But I still felt awesome. Kept it slow and steady and had a bit of extra energy at the end to speed up and cross the finish line!

I finished at an hour and 33 minutes, putting me in 76th place out of 114. I'm pretty thrilled about this considering my goal was to finish the race without having to walk during the 5k!

Next year, however, I'm going for time.

Cool exercise blog

I came across this site today. Loving it so far. Tackles a wide variety of fitness topics, with a sense of humor.

Cowboy Yoga: A New Brand of Stretchin' from Jason Houston on Vimeo.

The Post on obesity in America

Me, after a 5k run, holding Evan at the beach.

I took a little blogging break while chilling at the beach with my family (yay), but the new Post special report on obesity was definitely something I wanted to pass along. (And of course it relates to item No. 12.). The parts I found most interesting were thing parts about restaurants trying to kill us all:

• With high-calorie dishes, restaurant chains put obesity on the menu
•  Skip the tuna melt
  

This is, after all, why I am boycotting Corner Bakery. The amount of calories they manage to cram into a simple sandwich are appalling.

The special report page also links to a handy BMI calculator, for anyone interested. I'm at 25.7, according to it, though not for long!

Anyway, in other news (No. 21), I've gotten my runs up to three miles several times now. I'm still pretty terrified about the triathlon (this weekend!), but at least I know the running part is possible. With public pools closed for the season, swimming has been difficult, but I'm not too worried about that part. Cat and I picked up new swim caps the other day! Seriously, the best part about training for a triathlon is getting to buy cool stuff. Best purchase so far? The pedometer. I know it's probably not exactly accurate, but I'm cool with it being close.

Also in other news, tomorrow we take a step closer to No. 24, the fancy garden party, when Uncle John comes over to work on the patio gate. (I need a garden before I can have a garden party.)

Guess who ran a 5k today!

It was on the treadmill because it was raining, but still. I felt awesome and powerful! Yay! Jammed to Cat's housewarming music the whole time :)

No. 19: West Coast roadtrip

Okay now I really need to see this guy in San Francisco.

Zach Houston runs the Poem Store. You give him a topic and some money, and he writes you a poem. That simple.

Behind the 30

Via Oh Happy Day.

I thought that since I'm not going to have progress to write about every day (and I want to try to write every day), I'd use a few posts to explain why I included certain things on the list.

No. 30: Throw the best surprise party ever

I have this secret desire to start a party-throwing business. I would specialize in ridiculously complicated scavenger hunt surprise parties. Why? I was inspired by this.

Via Oh Happy Day.

The holi colors are probably the best part, though according to some people they are toxic (?). A minor price to pay for awesomeness. I also love that they rented a fleet of Mini Cooper Zipcars. Anyway, I shouldn't ruin the surprise for whomever I throw this party for (no idea yet), so I'll just leave it at that.


No. 29: Play matchmaker

Back in the day, Lisa and I were totally going to start a matchmaking business. That dream bit the dust very quickly, but it would still be awesome to set up two friends and know that I had a hand in their happiness. And I figured some items on the list should help somebody other than me :)

Of course, I'm gonna need to find some dudes for this. The eternal D.C. problem. Anyway, what needs to happen here for me to consider the goal accomplished? One date? Three dates? Marriage? Okay not marriage. I'm thinking one date should do it. After that it's up to y'all.

No. 19: West Coast roadtrip

I haven't gotten the vacation time from work yet, but I'm thinking I'll head out to the West Coast May 15-29. Start in Seattle (hi, cousin Todd!), drive to Mount St. Helens, then Portland (biking??), then Sonoma (for Nina's bat mitzvah! yeah!), then Yosemite, then San Francisco, then L.A., then Riverside (to see Steph??) and then San Diego (Lauren and Scott!!). Then either I Amtrak it back to Seattle or just fly home from San Diego. I really wanted to do the train for part of the trip but now I'm a bit worried about time.

Accepting recommendations for car rental companies, sights to see, timing tips, or anything other wisdom you might have about this trip!

ADDENDUM: After doing some ballpark calculations, I think the train option (fly to Seattle, drive to San Diego, train to Seattle, fly to DC) will cost only a little bit less than the no-train option (fly to Seattle, drive to San Diego, fly to DC). But I'd lose two days to hang out and see stuff. So basically I need to decide which is more important: Two days hanging out and seeing stuff, or two days riding Amtrak up the coast?

Who likes short shorts?

Yiiiikes. Are those really my legs?

I ran 2.9 miles today, which is a record for me! I definitely could have done 3.1, but by the time I got back to my house I was only up to 2.9, and my couch was too close to keep going. Next time I'll run a wider circle.

Oh and yes, I got to try out my new running shorts. I guess the good thing about wearing really short shorts is that they can't ride up -- there's nowhere to go. But I felt a little naked. And there may have been some chafing. TMI?

As for the swimming part of the triathlon, I'm not really feeling the infinity pool. Thinking about trying out Wilson Aquatic Center if anyone wants to join me!

No. 27: Pick a date. Do the Groupon.

Sara had the great idea of picking a random day and doing the Groupon offered on that day, no matter what it is. So I let her pick the date.

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011

If you're not familiar with Groupon, it's a Web site that offers a deal a day, as long as enough people sign up for it. Today's was a package of pilates classes (no thanks). But there have been some really good ones, like 50 percent off at Rocketbar and $50 to get my whole house cleaned!

So yeah, anyway, that means Feb. 17, 2011, could bring booze, a massage, golf lessons, fancy coffee, who knows. Fun!

The list is complete!

Check out the bar on the right for the full 30. Here we go :)

Book possibilities

Just came across this book:

And then this one!

The (soon to be) 30 Before 30

I was going to wait until I'd come up with all 30 things before I started writing about this, but I'm already working on a couple items, so I figured why not start now and add finish the list as I go. Right now I think I have 21 things. Oh wait, I forgot one! Okay I have 22 things, though one of them is to read 30 awesome books, and I haven't come up with the book list yet.

Anyway, what do I hope to do here? I plan on documenting this three-year journey with words and photographs. When I read a book on the list, I'll tell you how it was. When I visit Yosemite, I'll post the pictures. When I weight 150 pounds, you will see a super fabulous picture of skinny Kendra (it's gonna be a while). And, since the list isn't finished, I'll post when I come up with new ideas for the last eight things.

Anyway, today I'm working on two items:
No. 12: Weigh 150
 Today's my first Weight Watchers meeting since coming from the beach. I'm bracing for bad news. Although I tried to be mindful while on vacation, I'm guessing WW generally frowns upon eating ice cream EVERY DAY. I've been better since getting back, but probably not good enough to have actually lost weight. I just hope I didn't gain any!
No. 21: Finish a triathlon
Catherine, Steph and I are doing a sprint triathlon in Frederick in two weeks. I am a little terrified, because I should have gotten serious about training a while ago. Today the plan is to run a mile to the gym, then hop in the infinity pool for a half-hour before the WW meeting. So far the farthest I've run without stopping was 2.12 miles (thanks, pedometer), though I did 2.25 miles yesterday broken up into two parts (to and from yoga). Today will be the first time I've combined two types of cardio into one workout (running, swimming).