Waiting for Yarn

I'm ready to start knitting again, so I bought yarn on ebay! Supposedly it is "soft and silky" rayon. I just hope it isn't scratchy. I like to feel yarns before I buy them, so ebay yarn buying can be disappointing. But here they are!
They're both small stranded so I won't look like I gained 10 pounds in a bulky knit sweater, and in huge quantity so I can make big things like long sweater jackets out of them :) Or many small things that all match .... ohh the possibilities.

I have been very impatient about waiting to win these bids and now I have to wait longer for them arrive. This online yarn purchasing takes too long. But it yields the best prices. Sigh.

Veggies!

Itty bitty strawberry. I wish they would grow more than one at a time already!But then..... BAM bell pepper! I'm very excited for this pepper. I gave the plants some compost plant food a week ago and they are growing like crazy now. This bell pepper is going to turn red when it's ripe - can't wait. I hope it gets bigger, but I hope it gets done before we go to Alaska. We won't be able to take the veggie plants with us :( Too cold.

She still knits... right?

There comes a time in every knitter's year when an absolute, if not at least partial, burnout occurs. I am in one of those phases. This happens about twice a year for me and I usually take a month or two away from knitting. By the time that's over I've completely forgotten why I ever stopped knitting in the first place!

I haven't knit anything for 3 weeks. That's right. I've been reading knitting blogs again. That usually happens when I'm almost ready to start again. I need a new project though. I'm feeling like something slinky... something in a shawl perhaps... I've been wanting to try an entrelac scarf but then again I've been longing for a vegan version of my clapotis shawl/scarf. It took me hours and hours to make this beautiful lace weight LONG and slinky.... and unfortunately wool scarf. It's black and wonderful, but alas I will never wear it again. It now belongs to my mom, along with my well broken in suede birkenstocks. (Sigh. I want a new pair of vegan birkies.... I don't care how unattractive they are, they're SO comfy) Anyway, I think another clapotis would make do nicely. Gotta find me some slinky vegan yarn.... hmmm, ebay?

Yes, a shawl would be good. Then I can get back to Stephanie's mittens and onto Lucia's wrist warmers :) I think I knit mostly for other people because I'm never quite satisfied with the end result, so I give it away so I don't have to look at it anymore. Is that weird? Oh well. Wish me luck that I get back into my groove. ("HEY! You threw off my groove!")

And here is something I have been wanting knit since the winter of 2004 and that is the Edwardian style tea dress Belle Epoque - it's just so cute. And I'm slim enough now to pull off the tunic over jeans thing, which I wasn't able to do in 2004. Ok, I'm going yarn shopping.

Runs Like a Girl

And that's the truth :) I am very proud of myself today. I went to the track and ran the fastest lap I have ever run. I ran 1/4 mile in one minute and 40 seconds - so translated to minutes per mile, that would have been a 6:40 mile! That is the fastest I have ever run, well, when timing myself I guess. Then I ran two separate 1/2 miles and did them both at an 8 minute per mile pace.

I think I really hit the nail on the head by jumping from slow long distance to fast short distances. My marathon fitness and endurance is peaked, so now I'm running fewer miles but I can really get more quality workouts from them. I want to get fast! And it's working so far. When I warmed up, my easy shuffle jog turned out to be between 10-11 minute mile pace - that is a minute faster than my previous warm-up pace of the 12 minute mile. Man, I have been stuck in that 12 minute mile rut for months - years even. Now I'm breaking free!

I haven't set up any reasonable goals yet, I'll have to chart them out, but I intend to keep up quality running sessions. I think I'll try for two laps at 6:40 pace, and a full mile at 8 minute pace. And it would be awesome if I could do a 5 minute mile. Even if I can only do one lap at that speed, I would feel like I was flying.

I want a shirt that says 'Runs Like a Girl' - a badass girl!

I love eating, especially carbohydrates

Ok, so the pizza was not great. I guess I'm not a fan of tofu ricotta. But the crust was delightful. (To anyone just tuning in, I tried a new pizza last night from Vegan with a Vengeance.) But the toppings I made - Bleck - I couldn't take the texture. Although it was extremely satisfying crumbling the tofu in my fingers to make it ricotta-like!

I am not so picky in my foods as I used to be. My eating lifestyle will keep me healthy, happy and just plain alive for longer. I am very happy with my eating lifestyle. Not just the veganism, but the healthiness and the balance where I can maintain my weight. I am in the best shape of my life. I am completely convinced that animals products are harder to digest and therefore are the main contributers in a diet to being overweight. And anyway, you get so much more from a varied plant-based diet. I mean, the amount of beans and nuts I eat alone put me off the charts for my folic acid requirements. I was concerned about that because the majority of adult females do not get enough, according to some such study somewheres... but I get a ton. There will be slim to nill chances that my infants will have spina bifida.

I know I am only one person, but I get so discouraged watching people devour meat after they seem to show some understanding for vegetarianism. I was at a barbeque today and watched chickens cut in half being grilled and thought 'Look at the massacre. I wonder if there are even any that were once a pair'.

If anyone in my family even becomes half a vegetarian because of me I would be in awe. I still have hopes for my little cousin. She tried it with very good intentions but she's only eleven and it's not easy. But I have hope still. We'll get all the girl cousins veggie someday :) In the meantime, I'll eat my potatoes and beans and veggie burgers and try to be content with doing my part.

Playing Vegan Chef

I have been cooking up a storm lately and I love, love, loves it. We're in Albany, Oregon again staying with Joe's mom and soon-to-be step-dad. Joe's mom bought a cookbook so she could cook us vegan food, but I'm the one hogging the book. I've been claiming the "dinner-making" rights since we got here, for the sole reason that I'm having too much fun playing gourmet vegan chef.

The cookbook is called Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. (Isa, you are my new hero.) She is the co-host of the cable show Post Punk Kitchen, a vegan cooking show filmed in her own kitchen. I say "a" vegan cooking show, when I should say "the ONLY" vegan cooking show. I have yet to find out what time it airs, and I assume on the food network? Anyone?

From the book I have made:

Herb Roasted Potatoes - baked casserole style with onions and garlic (Joe's new favorite dish)
Maple-Mustard Glazed Potatoes - same thing except with the yummiest sauce you can imagine (Jenny's new favorite dish)
Chickpea and Broccoli casserole - it looked cheesy and casseroley like there was egg and cheese
Indian spiced rice with almonds - substituted some spices and served with the chickpea casserole, they really made a great combo
....and for the sweet tooth.....
Banana Oatmeal waffles - delicious; once with raisins and once with blueberries
Pumpkin muffins - delightful, thought I must admit that I was hoping for more pumpkin pie taste
Peanut butter oatmeal cookies, and crispy peanut butter cookies - both turned out delicious, but the oatmeal ones were the best because they tasted almost exactly like girl scout cookies!


And tonight I am branching out and making my first vegan pizza. It's a combination of the pizza stuff in the book, but it is the basic dough with the Tofu Ricotta Cheese, which (though I had my doubts) really looks and tastes like ricotta cheese; and a mix of the Garden Blend and Classic Pesto - basically a very green looking puree. That will go over some red pizza sauce in big dabs and will be covered in mushrooms and olives. Oh, my stomach is grumbling.

Oh yes, and we cannot forget the lesson learned tonight. Whole Wheat Pastry dough is NOT a good substitute for all purpose flour when making bread/pizza dough. I started kneading and it broke all over the place. Whole wheat flour is made from hard wheat and becomes tough because of strong gluten strands, and when it says whole wheat pastry flour is means soft wheat. It just doesn't have the gluten strength to make elastic dough, but it's great for pastries and baking!

So for dessert tonight we're havign cinnamon rolls out of the accidental pastry "pizza" dough.

I'm glad I'm going running tomorrow.

Book reports = opinion reports :)

Ok, so I'm going in the opinion column direction for these book reports - but hey, it's my blog :)

Book Report: The Woman Warrior

Yes, that's right. You didn't misread the dates on these two blogs. I finished Schindler's list and immediately picked up The Woman Warrior and finished it in two days. It was captivating and much easier to read.

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts is written by Maxine Hong Kingston, a Chinese-American born in the United States. Throughout the story, the author gives narration and main characters to women. The men have very little role in her life as she perceived it. The women in her life, mainly her mother, were the ones to tell her that she was useless and would not amount to anything. No matter what the daughter does to prove her worth it is never enough because she is inherantly flawed in their eyes. It is curious that the women who were so prejudiced would continue the cycle of devaluing their daughters. Kingston grows up between two cultures; the Chinese culture telling her she must be a wife and bears sons or die; and the American culture showing her glimpses of little white girls in fancy dresses being openly cherished by their parents. Living both but not being part of either world, the author grew up frustrated and unable to find her own voice until much later.

The book is a very personal account of her early life and the people in it. Her mother is the foremost mentioned character in the book, beside herself, and throughout the story it is revealed how the author both looked up to her mother and also resented her. Kingston talks about how her mother would tell her "talk-story" but would often start off with 'this is a true story' but only parts would be true. The author grows up not quite sure of what is real and what is not. She also inserts herself into fantasy stories, such as the warrior swordswoman Fa Mulan who was treated and respected as a man would be. She trained in the fashion of a young man, then led armies as a general. At the same time she became a wife and bore a son in the midst of battle.

I liked this book immensely. The author uses vivid imagery and fluid terms. I couldn't put the book down. It is quite apparent to the reader that this is a deeply personal account, a confession if you will. I almost felt as if I was peeking into someone's private journal and maybe I shouldn't be reading it. She betrays her mother's trust by telling the whole world things she was told never to tell anyone. This book was very different from any style of book I have read. A very interesting memoir.

Book Report: Schindler's List

I told Stephanie I would do book reports on all the books I have on my summer reading list (half of them are borrowed from her!)

Schindler's List was a book I had meant to read for a long time - since high school probably. I finally plucked it from my dad's bookshelf and started to read. It took me over a month to get through it! Usually when a book takes that long to read it's because I can't get into the story, either because it's a boring story or it's written poorly. Well, this was definitely not a boring story and the writing wasn't too bad, though in my opinion, the author could have done better.

What I mean is that I didn't like Thomas Keneally's writing style. He jumped all over the place in single sentences, making it difficult to follow. There were multiple points jammed together tangentially and separated by commas in the least of direct ways. He would make points within point which could have been separate ideas on their own; this would have made the writing easier to read. As it was, I constantly reread sentences to try and follow what was going on. This was a small problem however.

When asked how the book was mid-read, I had trouble responding. I wanted to say it was "good" but the fact was that I had just finished a section about the mass graves dug by their own inhabitants before being shot; or about Jews starving in ghettos then being forced into camps. In the end, Schindler saved 1,100 Jews in his camp. It was the only camp where 'no prisoner was killed or even beaten', as Keneally writes.

Everyone knows the story of the Holocaust, and most people have seen the movie, so I won't go into any more details. I was trying to find better words to describe but they came out trite and pithy; words like "tragedy" and "beautiful heroic story" came out, and that's of course the truth, but it's all been written before. So I leave this report as it is.

Read the book. It's a good one to have read.

Marathon Pictures

Joe took lots of pictures the day of the marathon :)


This was my support crew: Lucia, Aaron, and Stephanie - with Joe behind the camera. This is about 5:30am - now that's what I call dedication :) Mom was up with me at 3:30am with Joe as well. Mom sewed in my pockets to my shorts so I could carry Steph's Ipod. She opted not to have her pic taken at 5:30!

I'm in the corral! This is about 6am-ish and we're waiting and bored. Hence the following pictures...





"i'm holding a pose here.... someone could have sculpted us by now!"



Joe focused on me running - neat effect huh.


Me running away from our first meet at mile 4. Joe gave me my Naked Juice and I was on my way - with a bottle in each hand now! Try pushing Ipod buttons with your hands full! Not easy. The juice was good - yum



Woo! Mile 7 1/2-ish. Still feelin good. I saw my orange team on the sideline and got great cheers.



Running away toward mile 8 - "Bye! See yas soon!"


Not so fresh anymore. This is at Fashion Valley after running down the 163 freeway hill. My legs are burning by now. Time for some walking breaks.



Running to my people at mile 17!!! I ran up and was not feeling great. I whimpered "I need a hug!... and my banana" - I needed some fuel! I had however gotten a big ol' hug from Aunt Mary around mile 15. She was riding her bike. I so needed that hug.



Fast forward to the end! In between I met up with my Aunt Chris at mile 18 and got another big hug! Then at mile 21 I got more hugs and cheers from my mom and Aunt Jane! They had balloons (shown later) and another Naked Juice for me. Yum. The sun had come out and golly it was hot. Now the race was finished and i could see the finish line! I sprinted!

It's a girl! Er, well yeah, I'm a girl hehe. I had this balloon to look for with the Orange crew.

These are the balloons from Mom and Aunt Jane. "We love you" and...

..."Run Jenny Run!" It reminded me of Go, Dog, Go! You know, the Dr. Seuss book.

The fronts covered all bases "Good luck!" and "Congratulations!"

I would not have had as good a run if I hadn't had all the support. Thanks everybody :)

26.2 miles and still smiling!

I ran th Rock and Roll Marathon on Sunday, June 3rd, and I totally rocked it. I came in at 5 hours and 32 minutes - precisely what I had predicted. I ran the first 4 miles with no walking stops and I stayed with the 5 hour pace group until mile 11.
The first 8 miles of the race were exhilarating! Everyone was cheering for us! And we went through Hillcrest and Downtown where we were turning corners often, so the scenery changed and kept things unpredictable.
Coming down the hill on the freeway was what burned up my legs though. We were about halfway through at the bottom of the big and long downhill part - my legs burned for the rest of the race!
I had a fantastic support crew though! Joe, Stephanie, Lucia and Steph's friend Aaron met me at mile 4, then at 7.5, then at 12, and then 17, and finally at the finish. Then I met my Aunt Mary around 15 or 16, and my Aunt Chris at mile 18, and then my Mom and Aunt Jane at mile 21! They would give me my Naked Juice or a banana - Mom filled my water bottle - and then send me on my way with a big hug. I needed that support so badly - I wouldn't have done as well without it. It totally picked me up and sent me with positive support and motivation to keep going. Joe and the gang were all wearing orange and were holding a mylar balloon with my name on it - I spotted them every time and RAN to them. At 17 I ran up whimpering "I need a hug!" as my legs were on fire by then.
I finished strong and totally ready to be DONE. I ran forward to the finish line with my left first shooting before me in the air like superman. It was totally in the moment - I was just so happy to be done and so friggin proud of myself! And they called out my name as I passed the chip pad "Jennifer Dolan you are finished! Lookin good!"
I am so happy I didn't quit. I would have regretted it so much. This is an accomplishment I'll keep with me forever.

Almost time to Rock'n'Roll

Marathon week is here! I'm anxious for it, but I'm not overly excited. I think I'm a good level of excited. I ran 2 miles three times this week and they all felt like I was flying after I was warmed up. My taper has been a bit unorthodox - well, at least I got way off my training schedule. I was sick for a week so no running and no 12 miler. Then the next week I did 3, 4, 3 instead or 4, 6, 3 - with 8 miles on Saturday, which felt great. And this week was 2, 2, 2, instead 3, 4, 2. I hope I'm not losing fitness or undertraining myself too badly. I'm actually secretly hoping for a huge blast of energy like I've never had before and I'll finish way faster than I've been anticipating. But I won't rush out too soon.

Ok race plan. It's great, I've got Steph and Joe both following the race course with sustenance :) And Mary will be on her bike following Kristi and I've got my mom and aunt jane at the finish with Lucia. Lots o'friends for cheering! So I'm going to hold myself back at the beginning of the race - this is typical race strategy of course, but I have to be thinking about it or I'll go too fast and bonk at 20. No bonking or hitting any walls, I hope, for this run.

I'm going to run the first 7 miles starting with the Clif Shot blok (gummy and VEGAN! fruit snack thing) just stick in my cheek and suck on it. Then at mile 7 I'll get a banana from Joe. I'll run from mile 7 to mile 11 or 12 along the freeway (closed!) and get another banana from Joe. In between I'll have another fruit snack if I need it. And I may not want the second banana depending on my stomach. I'll then run from mile 12 to 17 where Steph and Joe might be able to get me another snack. If not then I'll have another fruit snack or two and there will be a powergel table at 17.6 (also VEGAN!) I'll play it by ear but I'm pretty sure that I'll be sucking on fruit snacks for the remaining 8 miles of the run - everybody has to get to the finish line in time so no more sideline snacks. I really hope all the snacks are nice to my stomach. Oh yeah and I'll be drinking a full cup of water every aid station about every 1.5 miles. Hope that'll be enough.

Ok checklist for my aid people - I'll have them bring 3 bananas, a bottle of water to give to me to carry in case I feel like I need water more often, a bottle of powerade incase I need liquid energy if the fruit snacks are unkind to my intestines - I'll be carrying my fruit snacks and an extra battery to go along with my mp3 player. That should do it. I'll wear a long sleeve over my wicking shirt that I can hand off to Joe at milr 4 or 7 whenever I'm warmed up. This starts at 6:30am.

I'm hoping for 5 hours. Maybe. Probably 5 1/2, possibly 6 or 6.5, we'll see! Wish me luck