Category: Kentucky

Marching on…

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these guys were out in bloom almost 2 weeks ago...everything is confused by the weather

Hope everyone had a great leap day and made the best of those extra 24 hours…

The beginning of March signals…the end of February Fitness.  So how did it go?

Swimming: I was right around 40,000 yards again (about 10K a week), which was whatever.  BUT! The good news is that trying to squeeze in the yards helped me figure out that if I fudge my schedule, I can and swim 3x a week by squeezing in a short swim right after coaching morning practice (instead of the 1x a week I was doing last season).  This a habit I will continue to follow into March and beyond.  So, success.

Sugar:  Aside from Joe’s birthday cake, the Ale 8 and Moon Pie (which, due to cultural sensitivities, I couldn’t decline), a trip to Orange Leaf (which is really chemicals, not sugar), and one day at work where I had a total meltdown and ate like 5 mini chocolate bars, I ROCKED IT (I know that sounds like I didn’t rock it, but for me it was a huge step in the right direction).  Sugar loses.  I win.

No bitching rule:  Errrrrr…2 out of 3 isn’t bad.

SO!  What’s up in March?

Now that I can run again (I ran 6 this morning without pain…heck yeah) training for Hawaii is starting to really happen. The unseasonably warm weather hasn’t hurt either.  Alison, who is in the process of getting her coaching certification, is using me as her first client…or guinea pig.  So she’s the boss from here on out.  Bring it.

Also happening in March, apparently a lot of this:

Despite the uneventful morning weather, the weathermen are predicting Armaggedon this afternoon.  They closed the public schools at noon.  I got sent home from work at 1:30.  Jim Cantore is here in Lexington.  We are currently a 9 on the TOR:CON Index.  Apparently sh*t’s about to go down.  But right now, the sun is shining and things are calm.

So, in the meantime, I’m sitting on the in-laws back porch (they have a basement, we don’t) enjoying the unseasonably warm sunny weather with Spike.  And secretly freaking out on the inside.

Happy Friday.

Update: We are now a TORCON 10.  And I’m following Jim Cantore on Twitter.

Slowness

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me and spike scopin out sunday morning

If you haven’t noticed…I’ve been moving slow. On here. In life. Like molasses (which I just used for the first time in recipe. It’s gross.)

I’m spending this week driving around the beautiful state of Kentucky for work, but will be back soon.

Have a good Tuesday…

Dreaming of a white…February.

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

{view from my office window}

What a surprise to look out the back door this morning and see a blanket of white.  The first real snow of the year to stick.  Didn’t even see it coming. Even Spike was caught off guard (he saw one of the toys he left laying by the back door buried under a pile of snow and it freaked him out.)   I had kind of assumed that we had skipped winter this year and were already headed into spring and tornadoes.

I love it, fresh snow is so great.  Just hope winter doesn’t decide to really arrive like 4 months late…because I’m also dreaming of a garden.  And chickens.

What in the what…

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It is January 17.  2 days ago there was snow and ice covering the ground.  Today there is a tornado warning.  And it’s 54 degrees.

Below is a video I took from our lunch table, where we were sitting when the storm rolled in (which sucked, because we had to walk back to the office.)  The owner came around and told all of us that if things got worse, we going to have to move to the corridor in the middle of the building.

It doesn’t look that bad on the video through the window, but the winds were up at 50 mph and those chairs sitting on the sidewalk in the bottom right hand corner would have been flying if they weren’t chained down (I actually am posting this more so I can see if it works, this is the first home video I’ve embedded in a post WHAT UP).

In Louisville an EF1 touched down and destroyed some property.  And because I’m from southern California and am terrified of any weather more severe than heavy rain, of course I immediately started reading up on the Fujita scale, CAPE values, the biggest tornados and tornado outbreaks (including the Super Outbreak last spring), tornado myths, and watching tornado videos on You Tube.  This usually doesn’t start until March.

But by mid afternoon:

La la.  NBD.  Just another mid-January day.

There is no such things as bad weather.  Just soft people.

~Bill Bowerman 

Bikini

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Picture via

When we were in SF, one of the stipulations for moving to Kentucky was that we would get a pig…pretty much because it sounded awesome.  We talked about our pig a lot and even gave it a name (Bikini). Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out the way we anticipated and because we are renting and have no plans to move, Bikini is now, for all intents and purposes, out of the picture.

Last spring Paul got really amped about an alternative:

And though it took a while to come to fruition, over the holiday break Paul decided to use his brother’s master architecture skills and build a coop.  He’s convinced we can train the dog not to chase or eat the chickens.

So here it is: the Chicken Coop.

We used Spike’s old dog house (which he went inside exactly once) as a separated area inside for them to have their nests for laying.   Complete with easy-access hatch to remove the eggs.

To be completely honest, Paul’s outfit aside, I was really impressed.  It’s like a chicken mansion.  I’m not sure the chickens will understand what they’re supposed to do where, but Paul did the research and is pretty confident.  So I guess we’ll find out.

Next up: the chickens.  Probably in the spring.

Kentucky Goes Global

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An email from Margaret, who is currently working over in London for a few months (lucky):

So my friend Susie is doing what I”m doing work-wise, but in Osaka, and for a year.  She goes to visit a friend in the burbs outside Osaka and writes me this – (and see attached pic)
“then today we went to this hilarious (but good) place called U.K. diner.  i figured it was british food but instead it was a university of kentucky themed restaurant!  UK gear all over the place and a motorcycle inside and american food!”  
i mean that’s amazing.  i have no idea what the link between japan and U Kentucky is, but it’s strong.  Meg – I wonder if they televised the NCAA game there and all wore jorts???!!!
Attached picture below:
Yes, those are NASCAR cars, trucks (I just learned there is a NASCAR truck series), and big rigs lining the walls and a Camaro chair in the forefront.  The allure of Kentucky culture knows no bounds.

Deck the Halls

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the complete display of holiday decorations at our house. its tree-shaped because the string of lights wasn't long enough to reach around the edge of the window.

Christmas has exploded in our office (I am going to apologize in advance for the quality of these pictures, they were taken quickly and with my phone.)

A 360 view of what I see as I walk out of my cubicle:

To the left (of course, I’ve mentioned this before):

look how much that battle has grown since the first ship landed on dec 1

To the right:

as far as i know, mitch is the only one in the office with a stocking

To the front:

oh hello there!

To the side (outside my neighbor’s cube):

ok, i lied. i have no idea who duckie is, but he has a stocking too.

To the other side (my neighbor’s file cabinet):

And to the back (inside my own cube, thanks to a coworker who hung it there):

A departure from my previous place of employment, where we weren’t allowed to have flowers on the counters because one of the managing partners thought it made the office look like a bank.

I should note, all of these are provided by a single employee who is letting the office “borrow” them for the season.  She also has three inflatable Christmas-themed decorations in the front yard of her home (a manger, noah’s ark…with flamingos…, and barn with all 9 of Santa’s reindeer sitting in their respective stalls. She showed me pictures on her phone.)  Can’t help but admire people who embrace anything with this amount of passion and just run with it.

P.S.  And what else to do when you’re sitting in a glittercloud of holiday than listen to some seasonal music.  Favorite this week: the She & Him Christmas Album.

Advent

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Town hall in Hunfeld, Germany (where the advent calendar tradition started) where they use the actual windows of the house as the advent calendar. 

At 8:15 this morning one of my coworkers came bounding up to my desk, big box in hand, smile on face, and giddily told me, “Just FYI, we set up an advent calendar on this file cabinet here right by your desk every year, so for the next 24 days people will be gathering here every morning to watch it get opened.”

Sure enough, everyone and their mother came by my desk this morning to admire it and get REALLY EXCITED.  The theme this year?   Star Wars Legos.  Because what says preparation for the Nativity of Christ more than that.

So every day has a little bag of lego pieces that build something.  And because I’m the newest one in the office, and because this daily event happens just outside the door of my cube, I was chosen to build the first one:

I think it is some sort of ship (?)

I won’t lie, there were a lot of little pieces and with everyone watching me try to figure out how to put it together, I did experience some performance anxiety.  But in the end, I prevailed.

Hello, December.

It’s coming

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Yeah, that’s right.  Spike’s in his creampuff.  He doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning to go on his run. The days are getting shorter. I need to remember my gloves to scrape ice off the car at 5am before I can drive to practice.  I am starting to get the dry coughs after my runs.

The cold.  It’s coming.