6!!!

I wasn't sure, when I started my workout today, if I was going to make an attempt at the elusive six-miles-in-an-hour. I just took three days off from working out (Friday was a planned off day, but Saturday and Sunday just sort of worked out that way because of my random weekend schedule...), and I was trying to decide if I wanted to do a kettlebell workout, or just walk for a while, or what. Plus, it was about 95 degrees here today, and quite warm and stuffy inside my condo (I had the A/C set at 78...). But I decided to at least go for a 5K run on the treadmill and then see how I felt...

I hit three miles at 30:52, and I realized, "hey, I only have to shave off 52 seconds in the next half hour to reach six miles." And since my first mile is always really slow (it's my "warm up" mile), I thought MAYBE I'd have a chance... Or at least I thought I might have a chance once Rick happened to walk by the treadmill and I asked him to lower the A/C temp to 76... (I would obviously not last long on an outdoor run in the summer...)

Besides, I had all my awesome Indian music queued up for the second half of my workout:

I was starting to really lose energy by the time I hit five miles, though, and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to reach my goal. Which sort of annoyed me. I can be a very competitive person at times. At least when it comes to competing against myself. And once I decided I was going for that six miles, nothing less was going to work. I got to 55 minutes and I still had a half mile left... so I sighed a big, exhausted sigh and decided to just see if my tired legs could keep going. And then, at some point, I looked at the treadmill display and realized that I was running at an 8-minute pace, that I had ONE lap left to go, and that I had just over two minutes to finish it. Using my exemplary math skills (hey, why didn't anyone tell me there would be math on the treadmill??), I told myself that all I had to do was maintain my pace for that ONE last lap, and I'd have my six miles...

Of course, this was the point when my body decided it HAD to have one last drink of water... water, posthaste! Water, forthwith!! And I have still not mastered the art of drinking water while running -- I always have to slow to a fast walk, otherwise I'm sloshing water everywhere. So I slowed down, took one last quick drink, and then just went as fast as I could... I could tell it was going to be REALLY close... and just as I started questioning the wisdom of that last drink of water, I finally crossed the six-mile mark... at 59:58.

Yeah! I did THIS many! (Yep, I'm a weirdo...)

I promised myself new perfume when I reached this goal (it's better than promising myself, say, a couple dozen cupcakes... or a Ghirardelli sundae every week for the rest of the summer...), so I'll be surfing Sephora's website to see what looks good. I guess 6.25 miles in an hour is my next goal... and THEN I'll eat a Ghirardelli sundae every week for the rest of the summer...

Just kidding. Maybe... :)

By the way, this is what Riff was doing the entire time I was on the treadmill:

(I just washed those sheets... he likes to burrow into freshly washed laundry...) It's good to know I wasn't the only one who was working hard... 

By the numbers...

2 -- Cups of coffee I plan on drinking while I'm writing this post (which will, by the way, be reheated an innumerable number of times because I never drink my coffee quickly enough).

0 -- Riots in my neighborhood during NATO last week. I would also like to point out that my condo building did NOT burn down, as Eric warned me it would. He'll probably say this is because of his hard work, and Rachel's hard work, and the hard work of the thousands of other Chicago police officers who managed the chaos last week. (Okay, seriously -- the CPD did an awesome job during NATO... Eric and Rachel, you guys rock... :))

3 -- Number of times I happened to see President Obama's motorcade within two blocks of my condo over the weekend. There were about a million motorcades passing by during NATO, all of which managed to gum up the traffic, but Obama's was unique -- every street was completely blocked off until the path for the motorcade was abandoned... then a single black car drove by (the "scouting car"??)... followed, five minutes later, by a police car... followed, after another five minutes, by six motorcycle cops... then shortly followed by several police cars, a couple big white vans, and finally the telltale black cars of Very Important People. And, while most of the motorcades over the weekend were full of unmarked cars with no flags (darn it), the president's motorcade included American flags and the flag of the president. This was the best picture I managed to get:

5,782 -- Approximate number of calories I consumed at dinner last night, when we tried a new (to us) restaurant called Epic. Tonight I'll be eating celery sticks and lettuce leaves. And maybe an orange slice for dessert.

6 -- Miles I am still striving to run in under an hour. It's going to happen this week -- I can feel it. At least it better happen this week, if I ever want to eat anything other than celery and lettuce again...

5 -- Average number of high-energy Indian songs I listen to at the end of my workout when I'm starting to get tired. They're better than Gatorade, I swear...

75 -- The very nice, quite perfect temperature today... Sunday is supposed to be near 100. I never thought I'd live in a place with weather more temperamental than Austin weather, but Chicago weather is crazytown banana pants (Community?? Anyone? :)).

2 -- Loads of laundry I SHOULD be doing instead of blogging... I suppose I'll go do something domestic... Hope everyone has a good weekend!

I'll never eat another cookie again... (Ha! Just kidding...)

So far, NATO weekend has been quiet here in my neighborhood, even though I can see at least five police officers out on the sidewalk and about half a dozen transit authority people with bright orange vests halfheartedly directing traffic (which isn't really in need of being directed at the moment). At one point yesterday, the transit authority people blocked off the street right outside with traffic cones, and cars at the next intersection were being herded to the left -- I stood at the window waiting to see if a Very Important Person's motorcade would come zooming down the street, but nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. So either the Very Important Person snuck into town in an old Toyota (which, let's be honest, would be a great way to remain incognito), or the street blockade was a result of some Very Important Person a few blocks away.

Rick mentioned the possibility that some of the dignitaries coming into town could have those little flags of their nations flying on their cars... which got me all excited, because I have a weird obsession with flags. Of course, that would totally negate the "incognito" thing, so I'm not sure if anyone will actually advertise their country on their car... But now I'm really hoping for some kind of cool foreign Very Important Person motorcade, complete with flags... and also, if anyone would like to bestow upon us gracious NATO-hosting Americans any kind of gifts from your specific country, that would be all kinds of awesome. I really like foreign chocolate. And I'm right on your way into downtown if you're coming from the airport, so you don't even have to go out of your way to drop it off... I'll even meet you out on the corner... you don't even have to STOP -- just toss the chocolate out the window.

We figured we'd better go out last night, since we're planning to stay in the rest of the weekend (although I'm still not convinced that my building is going to burn down, as Eric has warned me it will once the protesters find us...). So we walked back over to Bull and Bear, the site of last week's awesome brunch. Dinner was also really good, although the service was sloooooow. But since it's a sports bar, there were TVs everywhere, some of which were broadcasting the Yankee game. So even though Rick and I were sitting across from each other, we each had a TV to watch the game. Which was nice, because it removed the threat of that whole "awkward conversation" thing. (I would like to mention that Rick is the one who pointed that out when we were at dinner... and I'd also like to mention that it's a joke... :))

And then after dinner, somehow THIS happened:

Uh, yeah -- this was described on the menu as the "ridiculously huge chocolate chip cookie." I didn't believe the "ridiculously huge" part until it arrived at the table. If you can't tell by the really dorky look on my face, it was like waking up on Christmas morning and seeing tons of presents under the tree... Seriously -- that thing was easily big enough for four people... probably even six...

Well, I'm off to wait for a Very Important Person motorcade, in the hopes that someone will toss me some chocolate...     

So very random...

1) I broke my own 5K record today -- my best time previously was 31.15... today I manged to hit the 3.1 mile mark at 30.26. Which averages out to 9.7 minutes per mile. I have NEVER, in my entire life, managed to finish a mile in less than 10 minutes. As previously mentioned, I am the SLOWEST "runner" on the face of the planet... but I've been working on (very gradually) increasing my speed and distance. (I've also been trying to get to 6 miles in under an hour... so far, the best I've done is 5.87 miles in an hour. Strangely, I've done that exact same distance in the exact same time TWICE in a row...) 

2) I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day yesterday. We went out for a Mother's Day brunch... we tried a (new to us) place not too far from here called Bull and Bear. (Sadly, neither Rick nor I figured out the basketball/football reference until after we'd been there for a while... sitting near the bar... where fifteen televisions were broadcasting sporting events... and a ticker gave running updates about various players and scores... Rather, we assumed that "Bull and Bear" was some kind of stock market thing. We're super smart like that.) They had an awesome brunch menu -- I had one of the BEST Belgian waffles I've ever eaten. We need to go back there soon...

3) Rick avoided the "breakfast-y" part of the menu and settled on a Santa Fe-style salad. I tried a few bites, and it was GOOD. So good that I decided I needed to attempt to recreate it for dinner tonight. (One thing I've noticed after working out: as soon as I'm finished and showered, all I can think about is food... mostly cupcakes... Gosh, I wish I had a cupcake...) For my own version of the salad, I cooked some chicken with salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin and chili powder, and then tossed it together with a bunch of lettuce, tomatoes, red peppers, corn and beans. And then drizzled it with a dressing I made with nonfat Greek yogurt, a little bit of olive oil, lime juice, garlic, and the same spices I used on the chicken. The finished product was sooooooo good. But decidedly lacking in cupcakes...

4) Why do I have cupcakes on the brain right now?? I suspect it's because I know the store across the street is already closed, so I have no chance of running over there to buy one tonight...

5) Three days in a row now, the fire alarm out in the hallway by the elevator has annoyingly and randomly decided to sound. Fortunately, it's not as jarring as the sound made by home smoke detectors (which are ear-drum-popping loud), but it still causes the cats to stand at attention and stare suspiciously at the door... Piva actually meows with an intonation I can only assume means, "make that stop, please. Trying to sleep here..." (It's still not as bad as waking up at 2 in the morning to an intermittently beeping smoke detector that has decided RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT to run out of battery power...)

6) Cupcakes. (Wait, that's not really a complete thought... is it???)

That's it for now... hope everyone has a good week...

Auf wiedersehen, mein Auto...

So I just found out a few days ago that my beloved little green Audi A4 (which we'd managed to keep in the family, so I felt like it was still around) has gone on to meet its auto-Maker. (I guess that means that when an Audi dies, it goes to Germany??) I was actually SAD when I heard this news -- I've never really been emotionally attached to a car, but I did love that Audi... But I suppose it was getting "old" as far as cars go... it was a 1999 (actually, a 1999-and-a-half... did you know some cars come out in half years?? I had no idea until I got my 1999-and-a-half A4...).

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before: the only reason I even gave the Audi a chance was because I'd just seen the movie Ronin... and the awesome car chases in that movie piqued my curiosity about driving an Audi. (Um, Faisal? Have you watched it yet?? Or do you just not trust me anymore after the whole Galaxy Quest thing? Although, honestly, how can you NOT love Galaxy Quest?? Best. Sci-fi spoof. EVER.) Anyway, one Audi test drive, and I was sold. (I also loved the fact that Audis were pretty rare a decade ago... I felt like I was the only person in Austin who had one...)

I'd only had my new A4 for about a week when I was driving down a highway and a truck kicked up a stone that flew into my windshield. The volume of the subsequent "crack" told me that the glass would not remain unblemished -- I was quite dismayed to see the nickel-sized chip in my brand-new windshield. Rick later found out that Audi glass was known to be softer than the glass used in most cars -- this was a fact that would soon become even MORE obvious...

Not two weeks later, as I sat at a red light in my brand-spanking-new, shiny, unblemished (save for one annoying glass chip), practically-as-awesome-as-the-cars-in-Ronin Audi A4, I watched as a Ford Bronco made a left turn right in front of another SUV... and I watched the SUV broadside the Bronco... and then I watched as BOTH of those vehicles screeched across the pavement directly toward my brand-spanking-new, shiny, unblemished, eeeEEEeeeeEEEEeeeeeekkkk!!!!! (I'm fairly certain some sort of squeaking, high-pitched, half-scream escaped my lips.) Seeing as I'd been completely stationary, frozen at the red-light intersection, there was nothing I could do in the way of reaction. My mug of coffee, which had been safely cocooned in the cup holder, flew across the car and ended up on the passenger seat, and floor, and dashboard, and window... the front left axle was bent, and the driver's side door was rendered inoperable... and the large rear window of the Bronco shattered when it hit my car -- thousands of little projectiles rained down upon the notoriously soft Audi glass, and in an instant, that one little annoying chip turned into hundreds of little chips. Every window on my car was chipped. (Was this some sort of payback for my whining over the original windshield chip??? I will never complain about a chipped windshield again...)

Fortunately, no one was hurt (although I had some nice bruises on my hip from the seat belt buckle, and on my knee from hitting the center console... but if you know anything about me, you know I bruise WAY too easily anyway...), but the driver of the Bronco was uninsured. (Even though he repeatedly insisted at the scene of the accident that he WAS insured. That became a bit of a hassle, although years later -- seriously, YEARS later -- my insurance company sent me a check for the deductible we'd had to pay for the accident.) And the Audi was taken away on a flatbed truck to be repaired, having only been driven for a few weeks.

And this is one drawback to owning an Audi -- many of the parts had to be ordered from Germany, which drew out the repair process for months. I drove some kind of horrible loaner car for almost half a year (I can't even remember what it was... I just remember that it smelled faintly of cigarette smoke and whatever was used to cover UP the cigarette smoke...). And the day I was finally able to pick up my little green Audi -- every window replaced, every scratch buffed out of the paint, the interior cleaned and detailed -- I wanted to wrap my arms around it and give it a hug. When I think back to that accident, I remember how BIG those two SUVs were that came barreling toward my little car... but that Audi was SOLID -- many other cars would've been much more badly damaged, I'm sure. It may have been small, but it always felt substantial, and sturdy, and safe.

RIP little green Audi -- we had some good times... I mean, minus the whole horrible screeching accident thing...

(Not actually mine... but this IS what it looked like... :))

New shoes equals...

New cat bed!

(Seriously, I love this cat... never a dull moment when he's around. :))

Now if I could just discourage him from jumping into the refrigerator or onto the kitchen counter when I'm trying to cook...

Friday night random stuff...

1) The weather here is weird. Yesterday was 80, today was 50-something, tomorrow is supposed to be 72... I'm so confused. Although I suppose it's not unlike Austin weather, which also used to confuse me on a daily basis. Austin, however, would see such temperature fluctuations on the same day -- it made choosing an outfit for the day a complicated matter...

2) I cannot believe that Mariano Rivera (the Yankees best closing pitcher, for those who are baseball-deficient) tore his ACL during batting practice... and not even doing anything particularly strenuous, at that. Just... running. Why, Rivera?? WHY??? But c'mon -- he injured his KNEE, right? And he's a PITCHER. Which means he can still throw. Stick him in a chair and let him pitch -- he'll be fine. (What?? Do they not allow chair pitching in major league baseball?) There was some speculation that, since he's out for the season and he's 42 (which I guess is "old" in baseball years... they're like dog years -- baseball players age more quickly), he might just retire and be done with the game altogether. I would not stand for that. Not Rivera. Rivera cannot end his career with an injury -- it wouldn't be fitting. So I was encouraged when I read this on the Yankees website tonight: "I'm coming back," Rivera said. "Write it down in big letters. I'm not going down like this. God willing and given the strength, I'm coming back." THAT'S what I wanted to hear...

3) So I just started reading Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. If you'll recall, I read The Satanic Verses a few years ago, after my more-than-a-decade of curiosity about the book finally got the best of me. It was one of the best books I've ever read -- part literature, part acid-trip, part work of art... and Midnight's Children is cementing, in my mind, Rushdie's place as one of my favorite writers. I am mesmerized by the way he laces words together... his writing is very stream-of-consciousness, and I'm guessing it's a style that readers either love or hate. I happen to love it... but I'm not sure I know many people who I'd recommend his books to. If you're as weird as I am, however, definitely give one a try...

4) There was a notice on our door today from our property manager to remind us that the NATO summit is going to be in a town in a few weeks. They're expecting tons of traffic... probably a bunch of protests... lots of crazy people... And, in addition to the NATO summit, the Cubs and White Sox are playing a crosstown series, AND the Bulls are in a playoff game... basically, it's a trifecta of horrendous crowd situations. I'm already planning to grocery shop the week before so we can hole up in the condo all weekend and not venture outside.

5) I suppose I should post this before midnight (in the central time zone, anyway) so I can still say this is FRIDAY random stuff...

Hope everyone has a good weekend...

Curiosity only kills cats, right?

I just read that the giant Marilyn Monroe statue on Michigan Avenue is about to be moved to a new city, and will only be around for a few more days. Rick and I have walked past it several times, usually on our way home from Millennium Park or when we've been out wandering aimlessly on a weekend walk around the city. It's the famous "standing over a subway grate" pose:

And every time we walk past it, I say that I want to walk underneath it, so I can see if she's wearing underwear. (Oh c'mon -- you KNOW you want to know... I mean, she's like 30 feet tall -- does Victoria's Secret even carry her size?? And if she's not wearing underwear, what's going on under that dress? Is it like a smooth plastic Barbie doll? Or is it... uh... well, never mind, but you know you're curious, too, so just shut up...)

I guess, according to these guys in an AP news story photo, SOMEthing is going on under there:

But every time I say I want to walk underneath it, Rick tells me not to. I can't believe HE doesn't want to know what's going on within those flouncing fabric pleats... And now Marilyn is moving to a new city, so unless we take a walk over by Michigan Avenue within the next few days, I may never know for sure...

I guess Victoria can still keep a FEW secrets...