Lisa: Training: Week 3

2/28/06

Last Tuesday morning, Sarah and I ran our 3 miles at Sugarhouse Park. Sugarhouse is becoming our default location for 3-mile runs, because the distance is easy to calculate and it's pretty close to both of our houses. Also, Sugarhouse is hilly and so we're forcing ourselves to train a bit harder. It took us 40 minutes.

130 lbs, 28% body fat

3/2/06

Somehow on Thursday we ran a mile longer than we were supposed to. The schedule had us running four miles, but we apparently miscalculated the section of the marathon route we ran, so we went 5 miles. We didn't figure it out until later, because it only took us an hour. No wonder the run seemed so hard! We ran from Sugarhouse Park to Holladay Boulevard, ending with the section of the route we had run before. We decided it was much better not to have to stop at the midpoint and run back to the cars. When that's the plan, it feels like you get to the end of the route and then have to do the whole thing over again. When we have a car stationed at each end of the route, the end is really the end (if that makes sense).

3/5/06

On Sunday afternoon we ran the next seven miles of the marathon course, from Holladay Boulevard to 45th South and 5th East. This section of the course was mostly flat and downhill, but was probably my least favorite so far. Most of the roads are pretty busy, have no sidewalks, and often don't even have shoulders to run in. It took us about an hour and a half to finish, but I think we both felt better than we did after last Sunday's six miles, and possibly better than after Thursday's five. The weather was perfect--warm enough to run in just a t-shirt and pants, but cool enough that we didn't get too hot from the exercise.

130.5 lbs, 29% body fat

Lisa: There is a "biblioblogosphere." Who knew?

I have gotten a lot of emails lately with links to librarian blogs, wikis, etc. There is some quality stuff here--of interest mostly to librarians, but I think with some general appeal. Here are a few of the latest:

Lisa: Training: Week 4

3/8/06

Last Wednesday morning I ran three miles at Sugarhouse Park. I made a conscious effort to step up the pace, but disappointingly it still took me about 40 minutes.

129 lbs, 28% body fat

3/10/06

On Friday evening, Sarah and I ran five miles along the next section of the marathon route. We started at 45th South and 5th East and finished at Liberty Park, which was flat all the way and felt easy peasy. We kept up a pretty good pace except during a short bathroom break at 21st South. The whole thing still took an hour and ten minutes.

128.5 lbs, 27% body fat

3/11/06

On Saturday morning, about 12 hours after our five mile run on Friday night, Sarah and I dragged ourselves around Sugarhouse Park for three miles. I consider it an accomplishment that we never stopped to walk--12 hours was definitely not enough time to recover. You can see we are not happy...

3/12/06

Sunday night Sarah and I started the marathon route again to get our full 8 miles in. We ran from the bridge to the intersection of 20th East and 33rd South. That's the hilliest section of the course, and we were basically at a survival pace. It took us an hour and fifty minutes to run the whole distance in the freezing cold. I think we would have been better off with our usual rest day before the long run.

130 lbs, 29% body fat

Sarah: I would like some fries with that.

Last Thursday I drove to Logan after work to visit some friends and attend a concert by the Fry Street Quartet. This quartet is good-looking beyond all reason, and their concert was amazing. While attending Utah State University, I had the pleasure of learning from this resident quartet, but needed to show the world that this group is only human. And so, I bring you candid photos:

The lovely Jessica, who is so funny and once bought me and some friends dinner. I would love to dress, act, and be like Jessica.

Next, my former viola teacher, Russell. Russell is super nice, and he once used a South Park reference in a viola studio class, and for that I will adore him forever.

Russell is married to Becky, who is lovely, and apparently doesn't take bad pictures. So I now hate her a little bit.

Last but DEFINITLY not least, Anne is tiny in stature but I'm pretty sure she could beat me up. This woman is pure muscle. Also, she is totally cool. Jason and I call her Annabelle.

Sarah: Logan

As I mentioned earlier, I attended a concert in Logan last week, and took pictures. So here are some of my friends:

I've never met this kid, but his name is Ethan Fallis (snort. Phallus.), and he told my friend Jason that he would "not miss a day of high school for anything." Good on you, Ethan.

The cutest couple in the world may well be Randy and his teeny tiny pregnant wife, Megan. I'm not sure you can appreciate the tininess unless you understand that Randy is probably 5'6". Which makes her... significantly shorter than that.

It was a surprise to see her there, but I was very pleased to run into my old roommate Nicole. She was also visibly delighted.

She was looking very thin and her hair was shiny and smooth. Her date, Steve, was a lucky guy.

Erin and I have known each other for a long time, and have even been mistaken for sisters. I think it has to do with the hair. I think she's lovely.

See?

Linnea is hilarious, and her hair also looked shiny, smooth, and luxurious. Damn those Loganites and their conditioner.

Tammy and Staci smile big. Tammy is moving to Salt Lake soon, and will TOTALLY be my friend.

They were shortly joined by Lauren, who couldn't hang out with us after the concert because she was late for frisbee practice. Yes, you read that correctly.

That's most of my photos, and since no one is reading this entry anymore, I'll wrap things up. My friends rock, and it was good to see them, and they tolerated me as I got increasingly hyper from Diet Coke and hot chocolate.

Lisa: You know, I'd feel your thigh, but I'm so full of decency

Dear Beyonce and Company,

Gluing a sparkly piece of jewelry to the top of your butt crack does not actually disguise the fact that said butt crack is visible. I think the solution you're looking for is taller pants.

Sincerely,

Contusion G. Mammalian

Lisa: Painting: upstairs bathroom and hall

ljc's house painting projects inspired me to go ahead and start on the painting I've sort of vaguely planned on doing around my house. Our paint is in good repair, but it's all beige and white and blah. I was especially impressed by ljc's willingness to try bold colors, so after thinking about the colors I might want in each room, Sarah and I went to Home Depot and picked up a whole bunch of paint chips. I stuck my favorites up on the walls and lived with them for a few days, and then took Blake on a tour and got him to sign off (according to GLP standards, of course) on the colors he approved of. Here are my first two finished areas:

Upstairs Bathroom

Here's what the bathroom looked like before:

You can't see terribly well in that photo, but the wall the sink and toilet are on was covered with wallpaper in a large floral heavy on the burgundy and navy blue. The other walls were beige. Sarah helped me strip off the wallpaper, and after a LOT of scraping and patching, the wall was ready to paint. The other walls just needed a quick wipedown with TSP. I taped off the trim and ceiling and got started.

Here's the result:

I was going for a bright Tiffany blue, and I LOVE the color. I really like how it makes the white fixtures look brighter and the chrome shinier. The color is Ralph Lauren's "Aegean Blue," but I had the guy at Home Depot match it in Behr paint, which costs about half as much. Actually, I had the first guy try to match it, but he just put the Ralph Lauren formula into the Behr paint base, which totally didn't work. The awesome paint guy at the store on Highland exchanged the ruined paint for new paint that was color-matched to the RL paint chip. I am definitely going straight to him next time.

Upstairs Hall

I don't have a before picture of the hallway, but it was a dark beige with a really ugly ceiling fixture involving yellow glass. I decided I wanted the hall a sunny, buttery yellow, so I chose Behr's "Cornmeal." Once I got it all painted and turned on the light, I realized that yellow paint + yellow walls = oven. It was a good excuse to choose a new light fixture for the hall. Blake and I went to Lowe's, which seemed to have the widest selection of reasonably-priced fixtures. Along with the new hall lamp, we got new shades to replace the flowery granny ones on the bathroom sconces, as well as new towel racks for the bathroom that matched the faucets more closely. These small changes made a huge difference in both areas. Yay!

I love how the yellow looks next to the blue of the bathroom when you're walking by...

I had to put all the paint stuff away before leaving for Boston, but I'm excited to get going again when I get back!

Lisa: Training, Week 5 (and assorted ruminations)

3/16/06

Thursday Sarah and I ran in the evening along the marathon route, starting at La Puente and finishing at the Cotton Bottom. We went five miles, and it honestly didn't feel too bad.

3/17/06

On Friday night, we ran our three miles at Sugarhouse Park, as usual. It was cold, with snow seemingly being driven directly into our eyes. We are seriously so tough.

3/19/06

On Sunday after Jeff's recital, we ran TEN MILES, from the Cotton Bottom all the way to Liberty Park. After the first five miles, I felt great, but the last two miles felt really hard. I definitely hit a wall--the last couple of miles were just a test of will. It took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

I have been feeling a little bit less motivated lately, now that the runs are getting longer and harder and the newness and excitement has sort of worn off. I decided to buy a copy of the book to read on the plane. I figured it might get me more excited about running again, as well as giving me some more helpful info (about stretching, hydration, etc.) now that we are getting into the longer runs. Here's what I've been thinking about:

So. Put all of THAT in your back pocket.

Lisa: Boston, Day 1

This week I am in Boston for the Public Library Association national conference. Here's my first daily report!

Security was terrible at the Salt Lake City airport, which meant that I barely made my plane, and that my luggage did not. Nevertheless, I got to the gate in time and everything was fine. Janell (another children's librarian from Whitmore) and I watched Pride and Prejudice on my laptop on the plane, but the battery crapped out with ten minutes still to go (wah!). We got to Boston around 4:30 pm, and successfully found the hotel via bus and subway.

We stayed at the Hotel at MIT, which was AWESOME. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures...

Here's sort of a dark close-up on the throw blanket:

A wall sconce out in the hallway that resembles a microchip:

The lounge downstairs:

We ate a tasty dinner at the Asgrave, a sort of Irish pub right next to the hotel, and then walked down to Harvard Square. Most of the shops were closed, but we were able to go into the Harvard Bookstore, the Harvard Coop, and Urban Outfitters. We took the subway back to the hotel to get out of the cold and got into bed. My suitcase got delivered at about 1:30 am, alleviating my fear that I'd have to go to workshops the next day with no makeup, wearing the dirty clothes I wore on the plane.

To be continued!

Sarah: I continue to amaze myself with my own lack of penis.

My spam begs the question "Why have a Small Weenie When you can Have a Fat Kobassa?"

Why, indeed.

Edited to add a conversation resulting from this post:
Armando: Sarah. Your mom isn't going to like that at all.
Sarah: Dude. She will laugh harder than anyone. Your insistence that she is some sort of saint is tiring.
A:Isnt it Kielbasa? Polish sausage I assume you mean. I may have spelled it wrong, I haven't been in NYC in awhile.
S: Yes, that is what it SHOULD be, but my spam spelled it the way I blogged it.
A: Make sure you add that stuff. Makes it funnier, for me at least.

Sarah: And I was like "Hey! Emiliooooo!"

Lisa, Mallory, Marci, and I decided that we needed to go out on the town for St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, St. Patrick's Day disagreed. Supposedly the biggest drinking day of the year, this holiday afforded us with few dancing venue options, as several places were closed. Not to be discouraged, we braved the crowded dance floor of Green Street, and were well rewarded.
Well, mostly we almost had a brush with mediocre fame. And someone told me I looked South American. I know this was meant as a compliment, but it is nonetheless simply untrue. I mean, look at me. But I digress...
So the mediocre fame I was speaking of? Yeah, there was a celebrity in attendance that night. Not Ryan Cabrera, as I know many of you were hoping, but Wilmer Valderama. Unfortunately, he refused to engage in one of his famous dance-offs with Lisa (he probably knew he would lose), but stood in the DJ booth all night yelling things like "MAKE SOME NOISE" or "UUUUUTAAAAAAHHH," apparently to remind us where we were. I hear that drunk people occassionally get disoriented, so they should be thankful for people like Wilmer.
The point of all this is to share the pictures from my camera phone from that evening. When I first approached Wilmer for a picture, he was very gracious, and posed with the celebrity standard peace sign and peeked out from under his baseball hat in a manner intended to be cute. I took the picture and climbed down from next to the DJ booth. It was then that I realized that my flash was off, and had resulted in a completely black photo. As the night continued, Lisa and I made numerous attempts to take more successful photos. These were the best we could get:

See? Baseball hat? I told you it was him!!

If you look closely, that light in the top right corner is his cell phone. And the spot in the middle is his arm with his leather cuff-bracelet.
So... the camera phone has obviously failed its test of high-quality picture taking. The bar was not full of fog, as it appears, but was too dark for the flash to handle. I lightened the photos so that people would believe that there was actually a person there, so they are cloudy as a result.
This experience has also proven, once again, that Lisa and I cannot see a tv star without completely losing our dignity.

First person to leave a comment naming the source of my entry title will recieve a prize. No, seriously.

Sarah: The Miracle of Life

My love of celebrities and celebrity gossip is well-documented on this site. In fact, I've come to the realization that Lindsay Lohan and I could be good friends, I'm pretty sure I could dance and sing along with Britney Spears music videos, and I feel that Jessica Simpson could do with some of my tough love ("Be smarter! Take off those UGGS!") There are times, however, when even I cannot support the celebrity-adoration of others.

This is one of those times. (WARNING! Link is Not Safe For Work! Includes naked sculpture depicting Britney giving birth to Spawn of KFed.)

Seriously, is that honestly supposed to be a depiction of a woman in labor? ON A BEAR-SKIN RUG? I do appreciate the artist's true-to-life replication of Britney's trademark messy pony tail.

Edited to add: Link found via The Superficial

Sarah: Spring

Flowers are starting to pop up in front of my apartment window, and I opened the window for the first time in months. This is a good sign. I've been debating for the last couple hours how long my computer batteries would last if I took my laptop to the park. I'm guessing not long enough to finish my writing project. Dang.

Man, I love Spring.

Lisa: Training, Week 6

3/22/06

It was way too cold in Boston to run outside in the mornings, so I ran on a treadmill in the hotel's exercise room. It was my first time training indoors--I wasn't prepared for how hot and sweaty I got! I'm glad I will be able to gradually acclimatize to the heat before the marathon in June. Anyway, I went four miles, which took about 50 minutes. The TV in the gym was set to a lame-o sports station without closed captioning, so I was a little bored and resolved to bring a magazine the next time. I weighed myself (with clothes on) at 134 lbs.

3/25/06

I got up at five again to run five miles on the treadmill, and this time I came prepared with a $1.99 gossip magazine. I set it up on the little shelf so that it covered the distance display, and when I was finished with the magazine I only had another half mile to run (plus I was totally caught up on whether or not Jessica Simpson has had a boob job or not)! It took me 66 minutes to run the five miles.

3/26/06

On Sunday, Molly joined me and Sarah on our first 11-mile run. We started the marathon route again, and made it from the Olympic Bridge all the way down to the Holladay Pharmacy, my favorite store for book toys, finger puppets, zipper purses, and all kinds of fun gifts and accessories. I drank a few ounces of Gatorade before and after, and made sure to stretch. I have to say, I felt a lot better than I did last week when we ran ten miles! The run took about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Lisa: I heart Agent Booth

I think there were enough reasons in the Two Bodies in the Lab episode alone to make any hot-blooded female viewer fall in love with Agent Booth.

Seriously. How much can one woman stand?

Edited to add: bonus photo of D-Bo and Emily Deschanel

Sarah: Money Can't Buy Nights Like This

My camera and computer were disagreeing for a few days, so I am a bit late posting the photos from a recent girls night to go with Mallory's quotes. Here we go!

The evening started with Mal, Marci, and I hanging out at The Bakery, each trying one of their delicious desserts. Mal had cheesecake, Marci had a fruit tart, and I had tiramisu. They were all delicious. We're pretty sure that Marci's tart and my tiramisu had rum or alcohol of some kind in them. Yes, I realize that we couldn't have gotten drunk, but hilarity ensued nonetheless.

Mal's giant glasses were pretty smokin. Plus, her fans totally couldn't tell it was her.

When Lisa got off work, we left The Bakery to join her at Crown Burger, so that Lisa could have dinner.

(First we needed one last photo.)

I tried to sneak-attack Lisa with my camera:

It didn't really work.
Lisa was looking extremely skinny, so I told her I was telling the internet.
"Your new nickname is Nicole Richie."

Marci got fries. They looked extremely tasty.

Mallory mocks Salt-N-Pepa shakers. Nothing is sacred to her.

Also, Marci and Mallory didn't seem to be liking each other (notice the huge space between them).

But I thought Lisa was so pretty...

Then I started dancing...

At some point Mal decided that our wacky quotes needed to be written down. She started on her "NAPKINS OF GREATNESS."

I got a video of Marci imitating Britney's airplane dance from her Toxic music video, but the video was lost in my efforts to make my camera and laptop become friends. I was able to salvage a few pictures, though.

Mallory introduced a new conversation topic by instructing me to take a picture of her track marks.
So I did. I think she got a vaccination of some sort.

I experienced Diet Coke Nirvana,

... which made me have to pee. Unfortunately, someone had locked the door of the women's restroom and then camped out in there, so I used the men's restroom out of desperation. Urinals have always skeeved me out.

After Crown Burger, we met up with Jessie and then watched Coyote Ugly at my apartment. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died. Still, it was a lovely, girl-tastic evening.

For more girl fun, check out last night's Cinegrill Dinner pictures on Andrea's Flickr site.

Sarah: Spring City

As many of our readers know, our parents are moving from the suburbs of Salt Lake to Spring City. They aren't living down there yet, but Armando and I drove down to see the house, so I made sure to take some photos.

Here we are on the drive down:

Ah, he is so pretty...

I think the town is very quaint.

And I've always loved the side of the little general store.

It's a good thing that it's a Squirt ad, because if it were Fresca, I might be licking the building, just hoping to absorb some of the deliciousness.

Some pictures of the outside of the house:

The entrance (which my parents are going to change a bit... The glass bits on the left door are less than attractive.)

The side of the house

And the stone barn, which is one of my favorite features of the house. Mom and Dad are considering this as a potential big space for parties, hoedowns, etc.

Because of some work being done, I didn't want to take a picture of the round tower-ish part of the house; it was not at its prettiest. But I do love it, and it makes the roofline more interesting.

Some details of the inside:

There's a lot of beautiful wood, and so many interesting details in the house. I love the banister,

and the stained glass windows, and the fireplaces.

The detail on this fireplace has portraits of the original owner's dogs.

And I love all of the cool doorknobs.

Armando tried to scare me while we were checking out the basement, but I had the last laugh when my good friend Creepy Doll surprised him.

This is why you don't prey on the weak, Armando.

As an extra Armando bonus, I have decided to delight others while embarrassing him! Hurrah!

Why the frown, sad clown?

Lisa: This is why doves cry

After checking out the 1977 Frederick's of Hollywood catalog recommended by the Manolo (here's my favorite page), I saw on the same site this tour of the Gobbler, the most awesomely 70s-tastic motel ever built. I have never seen so much shag carpeting.

The parent site (the Institute of Official Cheer) reminds me of the Weight Watcher's recipes I found a while ago with a little bit of Avacado Memories mixed in. Good times.