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Internet Killed the Chain Letter Star

Am I the only person who misses chain letters?

No, not the current, “You must forward this onto 35 people for good luck, otherwise your house will be crushed by Cthulhu” spate of chain letters, or even the “tell me 25 things about yourself” series of questions (although at least the latter makes the person write something). I’m talking about the old school chain letters, where you added your name onto the bottom of a list of six people, and sent something like a recipe to the person at the top before sending the new letter out to six more people. If that chain went somehow unbroken you’d end up with over 46000 recipes, but of course the reality was never that good.

I was overjoyed, then, to recently get an old school chain letter mailed to me from a friend and former co-worker who lives up in the wilds of Wisconsin these days. It’s a much simpler chain, one with only two rungs. You send a paperback book to the person at the top, add yourself to the bottom (and do so by adding in mailing labels, which is an elegant solution so that there’s no retyping or such), and if it ends up unbroken you’d end up with 36 books in the mail.

The letter referred to it as an informal book club, and I love the idea of it. I actually spent a bit of time trying to figure out who to send my six letters to. They had to love books, of course, but I also didn’t want to send the letter to friends who knew each other, so that  it wouldn’t get stuck on the same people. (So for example, I sent it to only one person in my book club; that way he has the option to pass it along to other members.) I also tried to spread the locations out a bit; one letter went to Oakland, another to Boston, still another to Williamsburg.

Now, of course, I’m waiting to see if I get anything in the mail. How far will the chain reach? Will all six people I’ve sent it to break the chain? (Hopefully not, I tried to think of people who would be equally enamored with the idea.) If nothing else, hopefully the person I sent Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book to will love it. It’ll be fun to see what if anything arrives here. Mind you, I love getting mail that isn’t a bill or junk. So hopefully, I’ll hit the jackpot before too long.

Until then, though, I’m going to be dreaming of chain letters involving chocolate chip cookies arriving at my home. Mmmmm, cookies.

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Allergic to Life

Miserable [365portraits: 131]Well, as promised earlier, I had my allergy testing yesterday. Honestly, up until Monday being off the medicine wasn’t too bad, but Monday itself? Utter nightmare. So much sneezing and blowing my nose that two days later my nose is still tender and sore from it all. All the Sudafed in the world, it seems, wasn’t enough to stop the bleah.

Now that the testing is over, though, I’m back on my Allegra and things are much better. Most of the results weren’t much of a surprise, either. Trees, grass, ragweed, dust mites, and cats. Yep, yep, yep, yep, and yep. The dust mites in particular caused a rather alarming reaction, so much that I wish I had my camera with me. It looked like I’d burnt my arm on the stove, it was so red and puffed up. Yikes.

In a few weeks I get to start allergy serum shots, which is exciting. Over time, in theory, I should become less allergic to some or all of these things. Not so crazy about how after getting the shot you have to wait for 30 minutes to make sure there isn’t some sort of horrible reaction, but on the bright side I guess that means I’ll get some reading done.

The only real surprise was a complete non-reaction to dogs, according to the test. To be fair, I’ve been wondering if my dog allergies have been fading the past few years, it’s not been as bad as when I was younger and my eyes would get red and itchy just being near dogs. Still, I can’t see myself rushing out and getting a dog. (Mind you, my current apartment doesn’t allow them so that also makes it a bit easier. Charlie has dog allergies, which also makes the non-dog-owning decision a snap.)

Best of all, though, is that (knock on wood) now that I can start breathing again, I can also get back on the exercise bandwagon. Somehow I suspect spinning class tonight is going to be brutal. Hopefully I can hit spinning, run over to Artomatic and quickly install my business card and guestbook holders, then get home in time for Lost. Since I have to be up pretty early tomorrow, it’ll be interesting juggling all of this plus dinner…

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Strangest Marathon I’ve Run

What do you do when your race is cancelled halfway through the experience?

I suppose I should backtrack a bit. After scratching the Philadelphia Marathon in November 2008, followed up by gallbladder removal surgery in early December, I more or less had to start over when it came to training this January. I knew I would need about four months to really get the distance back up, so I signed up for the Potomac River Run Marathon scheduled for May 3rd. It’s a small marathon, in its sixth year, with less than 1000 people signed up.

I got up to 18 miles in early March, then ran the National Half Marathon with pretty good results. Since then, though, I’ve been having some slight issues between a strained tendon and just general free time. After the marathon I tried the run-two-12-milers (instead of one 20 miler) plan, and while I’d hoped to get one more long distance weekend in between it and the marathon, other problems kept it from happening.

So, I knew going into the marathon that I wouldn’t pick up a PR. It was a little disappointing because while 2007’s PR was a good finish time, I also knew I could’ve done better had it not been for the infamous “Greg almost gets hit by a car” incident and I was looking forward to break it. But it just wasn’t in the cards, and with feeling sick and run down the day before, it more or less cinched my feelings that I shouldn’t even try to do so.

Meanwhile, in what was a strange turn of events, seven days before the marathon, the race director sent out an e-mail about the start of the race. It was scheduled to start at 7am and run until 1pm. However, the National Park Service had issued them their permit and instead they had to be done by 11am. So, the start time of the race was changing; there was now an “open start” and you could head out any time between 5:30 and 7am. (The sun itself doesn’t rise until a little after 6am, I might add.) Now, I knew I wasn’t running a sub-4 hour marathon, it just wasn’t in the cards. So, I talked it over with Charlie, and we got to the race site (he was running the half marathon) a little after 5:30, and headed over the start line at 5:44am even as we were drizzled on.

The Potomac River Run Marathon is a slightly odd course; you run along the Mount Vernon Trail, and if you’re tackling the half marathon option you head out approximately 6.55 miles, turn around, and run back. If you’re running the full marathon, you do that twice. Once the rain stopped about two miles into the course, it was actually really pretty. Just a lot of beautiful scenery involving the Potomac River and wildlife. A lot of rolling hills, unfortunately, but oh well. Also, bizarrely, no mile markers aside from miles 1, 13, 14, 25, and 26. (And of course, me without my Garmin.) So, I just look my time, and enjoyed the experience.

I got back to the start and prepared to head out a second time, when Charlie ran up next to me and started jogging along side. “I need to let you know something,” he said. “They cancelled the race.”

Continue reading Strangest Marathon I’ve Run→

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Pre-Race Jitters

There’s nothing quite like trying to figure out if you’ve got pre-race jitters, or if you’re generally not doing well. I think anyone who’s had the pre-race jitters will agree that they are awfully hard to tell apart from one another!

But yes, I have a marathon tomorrow. I won’t lie, I don’t feel prepared. Several stumbling blocks were hit along the way, plus for my final long run I did the whole “two shorter runs over two days instead of one huge run,” which is a movement gaining a lot of traction in the running community. Really, that was more or less what I was doing for the Philadelphia Marathon last fall, but of course that race never happened so the experiment was a wash. I could end up rocking it out, we’ll see. But add in that the start time of the race got shifted from 7am to 5:30am, and the threat of rain, and I am feeling even less confident than ever. In my head I’m not even shooting for a personal record tomorrow; just finish under the new time constraints and get it over with.

Hydration [365portraits: 122]

In the meanwhile, though, I’m trying to stay hydrated while my body does its best to make me not hydrated. If nothing else, I do like this photo that I took (using a lens and a tripod that were both birthday presents!) so see, it’s not a loss.

Also, I have accomplished absolutely nothing today. Normally that’s ok but I suspect tomorrow might be a lot of the same. Oops. Oh well.

It’s going to be an odd, odd morning tomorrow. Hopefully if nothing else I will get a good story out of it all.

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I, um… what?

Have you ever gone digging around on your computer and found something that you can’t really explain?

Because seriously, I have no idea why, exactly, I created an animated GIF involving a box of cereal. I’d like to think there was some sort of reason. For the moment I’m drawing a blank. Although I am a tiny bit worried. Surely I must’ve had something better to do when I created it a few years ago, right?

I don't get it either.

That said, I totally want some Lilo & Stitch cereal right about now.

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Dopey, Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy… Doc?

After 20-odd years of allergy problems, I’ve decided to take the plunge and have booked an appointment with an allergist for testing and then weekly allergy treatments.

For a long time, it was ok to just take my prescription antihistamines (Seldane back in the day, then Allegra after the former was discontinued) but I’ve noticed in the past year or two that my allergies have been getting worse. Muuuuch worse. This past week, my head’s been hurting from being so stuffed up and generally bleah. Mind you, pollen on this level doesn’t help matters:

Reflected, Pollen Remix [365portraits: 117]

The only thing that stinks is that starting a week before my appointment, I have to go off my antihistamines so that the testing will be accurate. So for people who are around me between May 5th through 12th, I apologize in advance if I start clawing my eyes out right in front of you.

On an unrelated note, my television remote has mysteriously vanished in the last half hour. Hmmm. Where the heck did I put that?

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Weekend To-Do List: Update

I am declaring victory over this weekend.

No, really. It’s not even 2pm yet, and while I don’t have everything done on my to-do list, I wasn’t really expecting to. (Plus as said before, I still have regular things that need to get done like write some reviews.) But accomplishments? Galore.

Done:

  • Re-arrange living room (tv, bookshelves, couch)

Charlie helped me out with this last night and I really like the difference. There’s more room between the couch and the tv now, which is good since it’s a wider screen. Also much better for playing Wii games since before there was very little room to do so. Even better, the tv is no longer opposite the windows (so no glare) and all three of the nice bookshelves are together. I still have some tiny things to do (like re-hang my Charles Vess Rose painting) but it’s looking pretty good.

  • Organize closet and dresser (move pants, t-shirts) and get rid of old clothes

I ended up tackling this on Thursday and while there are some small bits that need to be done once cold weather is officially gone (so I can get the rest of my shorts out of a box and pack up my winter running gear), on the whole? Much better. Pants are now hanging up, and instead of moving the t-shirts into the dresser (too many!) I moved the polo shirts and that works just fine.

  • Run 8-10 miles

Knocked out a 12-miler, so major victory. Not a very good 12-miler, but I’ll take it. Incidentally, I do hope it rains tonight because I could actually see huge clouds of yellow pollen over parts of the National Mall. How disgusting is that? Even worse? I could sort of taste it at times. Gaaaaah.

  • Saturday morning farmer’s market photography

Not a lot of great shots, but one or two that I think will work. I think I’m good now for Artomatic, fingers crossed.

  • Sleep

I’m going to take a nap this afternoon, I think. And I did get some good amounts of sleep too. Including a nap in the car on the way home from Leesburg yesterday. (I wasn’t driving.)

On Hold:

  • Buy primer and paint for Artomatic (provided I decide on the color)
  • Read book club selection for next week’s month’s discussion (Farthing by Jo Walton)

I didn’t do this, but it should wait until I am certain what I’m going to hang (thus, the color selection). And I’ll probably just buy it at McLean Hardware after work so that won’t be too hard to accomplish. Krista wisely pointed out to me that this month’s book is actually China Mieville’s Un Lun Dun and ta da, I have already read it. So while I do want to start Farthing soon, it can wait a bit.

Yay! Things done!