Off to the Races

    2011 has been a good year; I've been running as much as I can work into my schedule, and the dogs are almost always at my side. According to the awesome iPod Nano that Mom gave me for my 2010 birthday, I had run 169 miles by the end of 2011 (and I started using Nike+ in February, so that's 11 months' worth).

   None of the miles have come close to my personal bests (as fast at 6'34"!), as I'm trying to overcome the hip injuries I sustained in summer 2010—and so far, successfully avoiding surgery, with little pain! My ankle, however, which I injured approximately 25 years ago, is another story. But I'm thrilled that I have *finally* been diagnosed—which *only* took THREE specialists! And the orthopedic surgeon feels sure that removing a ganglion cyst from deep in my ankle joint will do the trick. (Unless tendon or ligament damage is discovered while they're in there—stitching those up would make the recovery in the 18-week range. Ugh.)
   So I'm excited to go under the knife this Wednesday morning. If this works, I can do more running, more yoga, more swimming... all of the stuff that bothers my ankle when I overdo it. Here's hoping I'll have a speedy recovery—and be even speedier afterward!

Watch the Throne

   Well, my compact camera died recently, and my non-compact camera is too big to drag in to a concert, so I put the Blackberry cam through its paces. And while the quality is poor, at least these images give you a sense of the production value of this show, and it will help me recall how amazing it was!

   More details to come... it was an odd and awesome night, that started with a chance meeting of a woman who is basically ME at age 60+, the equally mind-blowingly good show, and the "after-party", which for me, meant being involved in a car accident. Quite a night! 

   In short, this was one of the best shows I've seen, and though their joint album hasn't been my favorite, this show helped me see how great it really is, and their solo work was extremely enjoyable, accompanied by vibrant and haunting video of vicious dogs, sharks on the hunt, big cats on the prowl, raptors soaring through the heavens, and more! Two smaller cubical stages opposite each other rose unexpectedly from the floor, and video was projected on all sides of them, as well as on the main screen. They were used to full effect for complimentary and mirrored images, often synched with the sound. Enjoy some Jay-Z and Kanye love:

Playlist (as much as I can remember!):

H.a.m.

I can't stop (sharks)

Jesus Walks

Welcome to the Jungle (tigers, lions, panthers)

Power

Flashing Lights

Run This Town

Monster

Made in America

Empire State of Mind

Flashing Lights

On to the Next One

Heartless

Runaway

All falls down

Dirt off your Shoulder

I just wanna love you

Monster

Diamonds from Sierra Leone

New day

Hard knock life

Izzo (H.O.V.A.)

Church in the wild

Gotta have it

Who gon stop me

Good Life

Touch the sky

All of the lights (restarted 3x due to technical problems; Kanye said, "Wait, wait. Hol'up! I said ALL of the lights! I just want everyone to get what they paid for!"

Big Pimpin'

Gold Digger

99 Problems

Louie armstrong's What a Wonderful World (juxtaposed with disturbing video footage, which made it very creepy! Young child in KKK uniform surrounded by proud adults, burning crosses, people donning gas masks, dogs fighting, and a mushroom cloud, among others)


And the encore: N***** in Paris, which they played about 7 times! (I know that sounds tedious, but it wasn't: they raised the energy in the arena successively and it got better & better!)

Really, Apple?

   I hate iTunes. The automatic file organization makes NO sense, and re-doing it manually takes forever. (My biggest issue is that the program counts something as being by a different artist, or categorizes songs as a compilation if the track features more than one performer. Case in point: Beyonce's "B'day" album, Rihanna, Timbaland, and countless others. Practically every album I own features multiple performers!!!).
   I'm in the process of fixing everything now, and accidentally hit a keyboard command that opened EVERY WINDOW in my iTunes music folder. That's thousands of windows. And no message to ask if I really meant to do that. I've been waiting for 10+ minutes as it opens windows, and the fan is running like my laptop's overtaxed and about to blow up. If it does, and if it kills me, please avenge my death...

A great end to a good workout

   That iPod Nano and Nike Plus (not to mention RunningRockChalk's challenge) has me running a lot lately. But I'm also still attending yoga and boot camp, so by the time I get home for dinner (usually around 8-9 pm) I'm about ready to eat everything in the fridge! Tonight I finished yoga and then ran a 5k, cleaned up and came home to make soft tacos. I need to pace myself to make sure I don't irritate my hip injuries, but so far, so great!

Long day, but I made it

   I'm working through some difficult challenges at work, and I enjoy challenges, but they have been mounting to the point where it is becoming draining. I was so looking forward to heading to yoga on my way home; Mary Ann took care of the pets for me, so I wasn't in a hurry. Well, neither was the traffic... it took me nearly an hour just to get to the highway. Every minute that went by, I knew my chances for doing yoga tonight were melting away. "No big deal," I thought. "It's 50 degrees. I'll just run with the dogs when I get home."

   And run we did: I am REALLY digging this Nano/iFit that Mom gave me for my birthday. It talks to me throughout my run, giving me updates on time and distance, and it tracks pace and calories as well. We ran another 3.25 miles, in addition to Friday's 4.5 and Sunday's 3.5. Dog-n-Jog, here we come!

   Aaand then I got home and realized how filthy the dogs were. They were covered in gross, black water and salt, remnants from recent weather. As soon as we got back in the house, they shook, spraying grime all over the floors, door and walls. Sigh. I had to bathe them tonight. That set me back on my plan to get right to work on finishing the DNJ logo so I could send it to Robin. But the dogs were clean and happy and smelled better, so... win!

   On my way upstairs, I noticed I had a voice mail. Big mistake to check it: it was Citibank informing me that my account had been compromised, and after a frustrating string of automated voice prompts which were unintelligible, I finally got a woman on the phone... who was also unintelligible. I finally was able to understand what to do and set about that work.

   I didn't get to my artwork tonight, and I'm disappointed but too exhausted to keep working. The good news is that it was a long day, but I made it. As the elder guy on the dive boat in Maui said, "Any dive where you come up at the end is a good dive." Same with life sometimes. Just keep kicking.
   * Update: Britten tipped me off that Snow Creek's credit card system had been hacked, so that's the likely place that someone got a hold of my number.

Back in the game?

   Tonight I came home from work and from my appointment with an attorney to discuss my will and estate plans (though we spent much of the time discussing Scuba diving and snowboarding... go figure!) and it was still light enough that I thought I'd take the dogs for a walk. The thing is, they have SO much energy that walks can be very frustrating for me. In their excitement, they forget their manners and drag me in different directions, darting around almost uncontrollably. It's amazing how strong two 25-pound dogs can be!

   So I decided we'd run. I haven't run in weeks and have been trying to take it easy so that my hips can heal. And I've been feeling great, despite the circuit training, yoga, boot camp, hiking and snowboarding. I didn't plan to run very far. But we got out there in the brisk air (it was 50 degrees today, apparently, but was cooling off quickly) and started on our way. 50% of the sidewalks were clear and the rest were caked with thick ice, snow, and slush. It was a sloppy, slippery mess. And we treated it like an obstacle course: going up, leaping over, running around or crashing through them. The dogs had their collar lights from Madel and were smilling the whole time. And we ran 4 miles, according to my handy-dandy iPod nano with Nike iFit (♥ YOU, MOM!)

   When we got home we were all chilly and wet and slushy and happy. I gave the dogs a much-needed bath and fed them. And then my thoughts turned to Sunday's race. I shouldn't... I shouldn't... I shouldn't... Hell! I haven't even been training! But I want to run!!! I checked the site, though, and the event is already full with 3500 entrants. Bummer. But maybe a bummer with a silver lining. I'll keep resting and hopefully be able to participate in my other favorite race, the Trolley Run, in April. And next year, Groundhog, you are mine.