In Case You Were Wondering About My Fitness Goals . . .

In June, I set a goal to swim every week, averaging 11 laps (550 yards) each time.  I did it.  So, in June, I:

Biked 82 miles
Swam 1.25 miles

(As it turned out, the triathlon in July that I was looking at was on a Sunday, so I didn't sign up.  And I didn't set any running goals.)

In July, I decided that rather than increasing my swimming distance, I would improve my speed.  I started doing my first four laps with no stopping, and then did 7 more, with breaks.  At the end of the month, I could do 4 laps in 6 minutes flat, and could do all 11 in 18 minutes 14 seconds.  That was improved from roughly averaging 2 minutes per lap previously.

The second half of July was horrible biking weather: heat, strong winds, and lots of sporadic thunderstorms that lasted just long enough to drench you, but not long enough to help any crops.  So, in July, I:

Biked 53.6 miles
Swam 1.56 miles

Then, the pool closed for 2 weeks.  Then, classes started.  I didn't make it to the pool at all in August.  I've still been biking, but I stopped counting miles.

Anyway, there's my follow through.

Leapfrog

When I go to campus, I generally do a combination of biking and riding the bus so that I can avoid biking up the hills.  This morning, as I was biking to the transfer center, I saw another biker, wearing a blue-green shirt, who was headed toward campus.  He did not take the bus.

I got on the bus, and it took off toward campus.  As we were coming up to the first stop after the transfer center, we passed* the same biker wearing a blue-green shirt; once the bus stopped, the biker with the blue-green shirt passed the bus and continued on.  The bus passed the biker, and then stopped for more students, and the biker passed the bus.  Then we both stopped for a stoplight.  Since the bus was behind a long line of cars, the biker got across the street first and started up the hill.  The bus was just about to pass him when it stopped to pick up more students, and the biker pulled ahead.  At some point on the hill, the biker got off his bike and started walking, and the bus passed him.

I got off the bus and pulled my bike off the rack in front, then headed toward my building.  As I locked up my bike, I saw the same biker with the blue-green shirt, bike put away, walking toward his building.  It's really not faster to take the bus.  Of course, I don't take the bus because it's faster; I take it because I'm a wimp with hills.

* Note:  The biker was on the sidewalk and the bus was on the road; passing did not involve going around and pulling in front of one another.


PS:  On my way back to the transfer center after my class was over, I crossed a street at the same time as another bus.  It stopped to drop off riders, and I passed it.  It passed me a little further along the street.  Then it stopped at a stoplight, and I caught up.  It passed me again, but it had to travel a farther distance to navigate some one-way streets and end up pointed the right direction at the transfer center, so I beat the bus there.  (No, this was not all downhill; the portion where I was playing leapfrog with the bus was mostly flat.)

The Best-Laid Plans, or, Yet Another Reason Why I'm Glad I Rent

On a specific day on June, David and I were going to go to the zoo.  We had it all planned out: watching the tiger training, giraffe feeding, dolphin show, and other fun things.  We also picked a day when admission was half price, which doesn't happen too often.

We got up on time, and David took some fruit out of the freezer to make a smoothie.  The fruit was . . . mushy.  Definitely not frozen.  So we made sure the freezer door wasn't having any trouble staying closed, and it wasn't.  After a little while, we noticed that the fan for the refrigerator was blowing continuously, but the compressor was coming on for 3-5 seconds, then cycling off, and repeating that every few minutes.  There was something wrong.

Well, we couldn't very well wait another day to get the fridge and freezer fixed, and we couldn't really leave--if we needed a new freezer, it wasn't like maintenance was going to transfer all our food over.  So, David went to the grocery store to buy a bag of ice, then took a bunch of bags of food to keep in the freezer and fridge at his lab for the day.  I stayed home and waited for maintenance.  At 12:30, the problem was diagnosed, and at 3:30, we had a brand new refrigerator!

Let me just say, I'm glad that management made the decision of the make and model to buy, and that they made the decision that the fridge needed to be replaced.  The problem was solved so much more quickly that way.  So, once again, I'm grateful to rent.

Of course, we still haven't made it to the zoo.

Success!

My goal for May:

Bike 56 miles
Swim 1.2 miles
Walk 13.1 miles

My reality:

Biked 80 miles
Swam 1.3 miles
Walked 13.3 + miles (I only count the distances that are easy to measure, and when in doubt, I round down.  Oh, and if you're interested, I ran 0.6 of those miles.)

My goal for June:

Go swimming every week, and average 11 laps (550 yards) each time.
I anticipate biking just as much, without setting a specific goal.

Now, do I dare sign up for a sprint triathlon at the end of July?  Or a 5k at the beginning of July--in which case I would have to set a running goal for June?  Not sure yet . . .

550 m

Last October, David and I signed up for a triathlon challenge, where we had to run (or walk) bike, and swim the distances of an Ironman Triathlon.  We got sick and didn't get too far.  We said we would try again in the spring.  It's spring.

I adjusted my challenge, and decided to do half of each distance.  So, my goal for the month of May is to:
Swim 1.2 miles
Walk 13.1 miles
Bike 56 miles
(Maybe I'll be able to keep up the exercise and try the real triathlon challenge again in October; then I can get a t-shirt!)

From October's experience, I knew that I would have to start swimming right away, and go every week.  On the first week, I told myself I had to swim at least 4 laps (200 yards); I made it to 5.  On the second week, I told myself I had to swim at least 5 laps; I made it to 8.  Last Thursday, I told myself I had to do at least 8 laps, and wanted to do 10.  Then I got to the pool.  The lanes were set up the long way.  I've gotten used to taking a breathing break every 25 yards, and now I would have to swim 50 meters--more than twice the distance--without a break.  Not to mention the fact that I would be sharing a lane with 3 other people, who were, no doubt, much faster swimmers than I am.  (David, for instance, swims more than twice as many laps as I do in the same amount of time.)

Not having a breathing break every 25 yards was actually really good.  I was able to push myself to do better, and I swam a total of 11 lengths, or 550 meters.  That felt awesome!  And that was when I realized that I could really swim the entire 1.2 miles.  I was anticipating needing to supplement with a water aerobics class, like I did in October.  So, I'm feeling pretty strong right now.

Speaking of feeling strong, when we biked home from the library last, I made it all the way up the hill to our apartment, and wasn't out of breath.

Love is . . . Chocolate

Well, I haven't done too well on my 2 posts per month goal, so I'll see if I can come up with some stuff now.  For starters, here's a post I thought I had already written:

For Valentine’s Day, I decided to make David Snickers Bar Cookies.  [Last time I made them, I had corn syrup but not caramels, so I decided to make caramels.  But then, since I was just going to melt them again, I figured that once I got the ingredients up to temperature, I might as well add the peanuts and pour the layer on the cookie bars.  That didn’t go over so well; the caramel layer was more like hard toffee.]

First, I made caramels.  Mmm.  Real butter, real vanilla, brown sugar, corn syrup, and all sorts of yumminess, ready to be melted.  [This time I let the caramels set before re-melting them.]

Then, I made peanut butter cookie dough, and spread it out as a bar, and baked it.

Then, I let it cool.

Then, I made peanut butter frosting, and spread it on top.

Then, I let it set.

Then, I melted the delicious homemade caramels, added peanuts, and spread that on top.

Then, I let it cool.

Then I melted the highest quality chocolate chips—Ghiradelli—and spread those on top.

Then, I chilled it.

Finally, we ate some, and boy, was it good!

So, why did I title this post “Love is . . . Chocolate”?  Because David also had the perfect Valentine’s gift for me: Extreme Maximum Fudge Moose Tracks Ice Cream.

Yes, in our home, love is shown through chocolate.

Feeling Blessed

This semester I'm teaching an undergraduate statics class.  Since there are so many students, I get to hire a grader.  In a timespan of about 4 days, I had 9 grad students contact me, wanting to be my grader.  Grading isn't that fun.  Grading doesn't pay that well.  And yet, I had 9 students contacting me (without any advertising on my part), wanting to grade for me?

Here's what I realized: these students who are applying to be graders aren't doing it to get extra cash on the side; they're applying because they don't have TA or RA funding.  First off, that means they're earning less than half of a grad student TA or RA stipend--and those aren't that large to begin with!  Secondly, they don't have their tuition paid for.  And I'm not sure that they get the in-state tuition discount. So here they are, paying to go to school, paying for housing, and any trips home they take cost over $1000.  (Yes, these were all international students, too.)

It makes my life seem cushy.  I have my tuition paid for; I get a monthly stipend; I don't track the hours I work on a timecard; and I don't have to search for new funding every single semester.  Yes, I feel blessed.

Organizing

For Christmas, David and I got a whole slew of new spice blends to try out.  There was only one problem: our cupboard was already pretty crowded, and it was already a hassle trying to find the seasonings we wanted.  Or, when we left the seasonings at the front, it was a hassle moving them to get to the flour, sugar, and other staples.  The shelves weren't tall enough to stack spices 2 high, so a double layer turntable wouldn't work.  I didn't want to get one of those organizers that could only fit certain spice bottles, either, because I didn't want to transfer all the spices to new containers.  I took some careful measurements, and then headed over to Bed Bath and Beyond to see what the options were.  And I found the perfect solution!

It's designed to fit 18 spice bottles, and since 10 of our new spices are half-height, we fit 23.  It has 3 racks that pull out and tilt down, so you can see exactly what you have.  And do you see how perfect the height is for my cabinet?  Here's the full-on view:

I did have to transfer the white flour and white sugar into smaller canisters to make everything fit, but I'm really happy with the result.  (Yes, we do have over 30 bottles of various spices.)

My next source of frustration, which had been a frustration for awhile, was the freezer.  It had no shelf.  I asked my landlord about getting a shelf for the freezer, and he said there isn't a shelf to fit it.  I don't know about you, but those holes placed mid-height of the freezer, at the front and back of the left and right sides sure make it look like there should be a shelf to fit the freezer.  I copied down the model number and looked it up online: no freezer shelf.  Then I decided to measure it and see if I could just pick a shelf that would fit--how many varieties can there be?  A lot.  And, when you search for a freezer shelf, you can't just search by the dimensions, you have to search by the manufacturer and model number.  And when you select a shelf to fit a model number, they don't give you the dimensions.  So basically, no luck.

Then I had looked at Bed Bath and Beyond, to see what I could come up with for just a basic wire shelf like people use in their cabinets.  I wasn't that happy with what I found, so I forgot about it for awhile.  Then, the freezer started bugging me again.  So, I went back, and bought 2 shelves which weren't going to be a great fit, but then again, nothing was going to be a great fit.  I was pretty impressed with what I did.  The shelves leave a gap of about 3 inches in between each other, and a gap of about 2 inches from the back of the freezer.  But, I found a decent solution for that: place things that won't bend or slip over the gap.  See?

Why yes, we do have about 15 lbs of cheese in our freezer.  And at least 5 lbs of frozen strawberries.  And we're running low on meat.  But focus on the organization.  This makes the freezer so much easier to deal with!  Food doesn't fall out and attack us!  Hopefully, we'll also keep better tabs on what we have, so we don't have as many times where we unknowingly run out of ground beef.  (Right now we are knowingly out of ground beef.  It just hasn't been on sale.)

Speaking of sales, we were running dangerously low on brownie mix.  And by dangerously low, I mean that we only had a few of the super fancy brownie mixes that we save for sort of special occasions, and none of the regular brownie mixes.  This is a problem, because brownies are a key source of chocolate consumption in our home.  We go through about 3 mixes a month.  And we were out.  And they weren't on sale, at least, not on sale for the price that I will pay for them.  For 2 months.  It was very sad.  Then, last week, they went on sale.  We bought 12.  Then I though about it again and went back for more.  We are, happily, now stocked (for at least the next 2 months).

5 Years Ago Today . . .

I was studying late on campus, working on an acoustics lab report. I wasn't getting too much done, so I took a break by downloading and printing a reading assignment for another class I was taking. I kept doing stuff on my computer while I waited for it to print. Then, a guy came up to me, holding my printout, and asked if I was in Prof Chadwick's Judaism class. I didn't hear him. After deciding that I wasn't ignoring him, but actually didn't hear, he asked again. I turned around, and that was the first time I saw David.

At least, I think that was the first time I saw him. David and I also took a New Testament class from the same teacher Winter semester of 2005, but neither of us can remember if we were in the 8 am or 9 am section, so we could have been in the same class at the same time . . .

5 years ago today, I also received my first grad school acceptance letter, along with an invitation for an all-expense paid visit to the school. But that event kind of pales in comparison.