Updates, falls, etc

I took my first tumble in practice on Wednesday. It wasn't bad. But I do have a charming bruise on my left hip.

One of my new years resolutions was to donate platelets regularly. I'm headed to the Blood Bank of Austin today for my second donation of the year. It's a bit of a pain, since it takes 2 hours, and their hours are quite limited. But it's good to do, and if I'm going to do any sort of blood donation, this works best for me since I don't lose the red blood cells that help with exercise.

Our yard cat, Trouble, who ostensibly lived with the people behind us seems not to have gone with them when they moved. She started showing up again recently. Or perhaps she moved with them, and then found her way back. Either way, it's lovely to see her again.

My dream come true

They should pick me. I'm perfect

Gardens and produce

I was a bit slow this year on starting the tomatoes from seeds. I should have done that right as I got back from my travels, but I completely forgot. Since the tomatoes have to go in the ground soon, I elected to buy some. I was pretty impressed with Lowe's right now since they had a number of heirloom varieties. It's still not perfect, since it seems silly to ship the soil around so many times, particularly when I do have the seeds, but there you go.

I got about 20 plants again (give or take). With our shade, and relatively small yield, this isn't the horrifying number that it can be for someone with a truly productive garden. I've also planted some lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, and broccoli. It doesn't seem that the spinach is going to do much where it's currently planted. As for the rest of the plants - well, at least they're growing.

Our season for the CSA at Hairston Creek Farm starts in mid-April, and we just sent in our check for the season. Sadly, we're going for every other week this year based on Tom's travel schedule. It makes sense, but it is awfully fun to get the box every week.

Yay for Tom!

Tom successfully completed his 3rd marathon this morning. He started well, but had some extreme muscle fatigue as his pre-emptive Advil wore off - around mile 16. He took some more at mile 20 when I saw him, and by mile 23, he was much improved.

His finishing time was 4:32:55. So if you are compelled, send him an email to congratulate him

twilbur (at) stanfordalumni (dot) org

Oh, and one other great thing - in successfully completing this race, Tom has also completed the 2007-08 Runtex Austin Distance Challenge. A series of 6 races culminating with the AT&T Marathon

Ahhhh....short track speedskating

Here are some of the pictures from our weekend in Salt Lake City for one of the short track speedskating world cup events.

Day 1

SLC World Cup Day 1

Day 2

SLC World Cup Day 2

Day 3
(still to come)

Let me summarize

January and early February this year has just been downright odd. Here's the timeline:

1. We start the year by Tom starting his new job at Vast
2. The first week he is away, I get the flu, and am completely out of commission for a week, and it takes another week on top of that to get to feeling normal again
3. With Tom's travel, and my weird gap in January, it seemed not to exist.
4. I start knitting a sweater - we'll see if this goes anywhere
5. Tom ran his 1/2 marathon, and headed immediately to Serbia after he finished - seriously. He ran, he showered, and we dropped him off at the airport.
   
6. Two days later, I headed to Cleveland to help out my mom with a surgery, which has proved to be a tough recovery for her so far. I am there for a week and a half
7. Next I head to Salt Lake City to see what I've been waiting all year for - the last of the World Cup Short Track Speedskating events this year. I got a new camera for fancy pictures. I love it almost as much as I love cake

Now I'm back home, and don't have anything planned for a while. It seems weird.