Archive for July, 2008
50 Days
Yep, I did it! Yesterday was day 50 of no slips and/or cheats on my eating plan. In that 7 weeks, I even managed to drop 11.2 pounds (another 0.6 this week) which averages out to 1.6 pounds per week. I’ll take it! 
Even though I’ve come to the “official” end of my 50 day challenge, I don’t really feel the need to splurge of go off plan. I’m just going to keep on keepin’ on.
As I’m sure many of you have heard by now, we did indeed have a pretty good shaker here in southern California yesterday. According to the US Geological Service, it registered 5.4 on the Richter Scale. Even though my office was approximately 40 miles from the epicenter, we were still evacuated for safety reasons. They did a quick inspection of all the buildings to ensure they were safe.
When I got home last night, I had to do a bit of quick clean up since my home was only about 15 miles or so from the epicenter. I mostly just had to pick things up from the floor and put them back on shelves, straighten pictures on the wall that were askew, and straighten things on the countertops that had “wiggled” out of place. For the most part, everything was OK with the exception of one of my candles which did not survive the fall.
In stitching news, I did manage to finish another item for my WIP Killer Challenge. This piece is from the 2006 ornament issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. It’s called Sampler Noel and was designed by Jane Timmers of Fancy Work. It’s stitched on Vintage Light Examplar from Lakeside Linens using Gloriana silk in Rosewood. It’s a combination of over-1 and over-2 stitching, with the alphabet all being over-1.
Well, I guess that’s it for now. Until next time … 
The Same
Regardless of our differences, when it comes down to it, deep down inside we’re all the same and language barriers just don’t matter.
Where the Hell is Matt? [2008] from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
If you have a fast connection and prefer to see the HD version, you can find it here.
Another 5k in the Books
What a hellish week I’ve had! Work has been as busy as ever. Two coworkers in my department were in a car accident on Wednesday (they got t-boned in an intersection by a man running a red light doing about 60mph) — thankfully, they’re both OK, but the Range Rover they were in was totaled.
Then, as if I didn’t have enough stress in my life, the person who sexually abused me for many years of my childhood decided to make an appearance in my life via email in a discussion over politics and religion. Other than seeing him briefly at my grandmother’s funeral several years ago, we’ve had no direct contact for nearly 13 years, so it was very odd to suddenly have communication with him.
I’ve had a mixed bag of emotions ranging from anger to just severe emotional pain/trauma from the flood of memories it brought back, including having nightmares pretty much every night since the initial email. After a few emails back and forth, I’ve thankfully not heard from him again since I told him before he started lecturing me on the state of freedom of religion in our country that perhaps he should take a look at his own faith since he has called me a liar over the things that happened to me as a child.
Anyway, moving on to more pleasant things ….
Praise be to the deity of your choice (see how I linked that back with the whole freedom of religion thing? 
), I am DONE with 5k races for the summer. It’s just too hot and painful (for me) to do races in the summertime. My next race probably won’t be until the middle to end of September.
Today’s race was the Cypress 5k/10k put on by the nearby city of Cypress. I did have a good race overall though. I think I may have even set a new personal 5k record. I missed getting my Garmin started at the very beginning of the race and didn’t realize it until a couple of minutes into it. When I passed one of the mile markers, I heard one of the volunteers calling out the race clock time. I remember thinking at the time that my Garmin was approx. 2:15 off the race clock. Like a ninny, I forgot to look at the race clock when I crossed the finish line. 
According to my Garmin, I finished in 48:58 which gives me about 3 minutes of “wiggle” room to beat my old PR of 51:47 which I set back in 2006 just before all of my back woes took control of my life. I’m figuring I have 3 minutes of wiggle room since it was probably 15-20 seconds after the gun that Darla and I actually crossed the starting line.
If you are a numbers geek and want to see the data from my Garmin, here’s the link to my race details on their Motion Based site. It’s a bit odd though on some of the data. The display on my watch said I had gone 2.9 miles, but when I uploaded the data to the Motion Based site, it shows 3.04 miles. 
For a comparison, here is a Google pedometer map I put together of the actual race course. I definitely wasn’t off very far before I got my Garmin started:
From looking at the race website, it looks like the official results aren’t posted there, but are on the Active.com website. I’ve never done a race where the results were solely on Active’s site. Anyone have any idea how long those typically take to get posted?
I do have to say, there were definitely a couple of highlights in today’s race. The first was the family who hooked up a water mister to their garden hose and had it hanging on a street light. As we all passed by their home, we got a quick little mist to cool us off. That was awesome!
The other highlight was that in addition to the typical banana, water, etc., they had Big Stick popsicles for all of us at the finish line. I generally don’t like anything with pineapple, but I have to say that may very well have been the best damned popsicle I’ve ever eaten and was the perfect way to cool down after a hot race! Even better, it was only 90 calories. 
Ok, that’s it for now. I hope everyone has a lovely rest of the weekend!
Frozen Food Recall
I saw this in today’s Hungry Girl newsletter and thought I would pass along the word.
Lean Pockets Recall! - The folks at Nestlé, makers of Lean Pockets, are recalling about 350,000 packages of their Spinach Artichoke Chicken Lean Pockets. These all have a “Best Before” date of Nov. 2009 and package codes beginning with 8144 544616. These products may contain pieces of plastic! DO NOT EAT THEM! If you have purchased recalled packages and/or have questions, you can reach Nestlé’s consumer hotline at 1-800-350-5016.
Tomato Update! - Hooray… apparently all tomatoes are safe to eat again! The FDA announced last Thursday that it is withdrawing its warning against eating certain types of tomatoes, as it’s recently been determined that tomatoes are not associated with the salmonella outbreak. The FDA is warning those considered high risk for illnesses (elderly people, infants, and those with weak immune systems) to avoid raw jalapeño and raw serrano peppers, though, as they may be linked to the outbreak.
Stitching Update
Since I’ve been focusing so much lately on my weight loss & fitness journey, I haven’t provided a stitching update in quite some time. I am still stitching, but obviously not as much since a lot of my free time is now spent either at the gym or in the pool.
I have finished a couple of pieces since my last update. One is the very first painted canvas piece I ever attempted. It’s an ornament called “Lilie’s Quilt Corner” from SHEAR Creations. Here’s a pic of my finished piece (as always, you can click any of the photos below for a larger view):
I also finished another cross stitch piece as well. It’s the Halloween design from the La Petite Holidays series by Curtis Boehringer. I made a couple of fiber changes from the charted design. I used an over-dyed fiber for the jack-o-lantern, and I used a combination of DMC 310 & black Wisper for the cat.
I’ve put in a big more stitching time lately on my Taj Mahal Mandala Garden by Chatelaine. I’d forgotten just how much I love this design until I picked it up to work on it some more. Here’s my latest progress pic at 72 hours of stitching time:
I’ve also been taking the opportunity at the last couple of stitching Sundays at my LNS to learn some new techniques. I’m learning to do Hardanger, and I also learned how to stitch a plaid design in needlepoint. Here are a couple of pics:
In one last bit of stitching news, I have decided I am clearly a stitching masochist. As if I didn’t have enough BAP’s (big ass projects) already, I picked up the supplies for yet another one. It’s Nova by Genny Morrow Designs. The chart book calls for using 18-count canvas, but I’ve decided to stitch mine on 24-count Congress Cloth instead. This project will also be my first experience with using scroll bars.
Well, I guess that’s it on the stitching front for now. Until next time …
Some Lighter Fare
Since my last couple of blog entries have been on the serious side, I thought I would post some lighter fare that I saw on TB’s blog. I’ll post a more personal entry tomorrow with updates on where I am on my journey and what’s going on with me lately.
5 Things in your bag:
I opted for my gym bag rather than my purse since the category said “bag”.
1. Swimsuit
2. Speedo swim cap
3. Goggles
4. Running shoes
5. Gym membership card
5 Things in your bedroom:
1. Queen Size bed
2. Bookcase
3. Two large cabinets to hold my stitching stash
4. Laundry sorter
5. Bose wave radio
5 Things I have always wanted:
Well, these are aside from obvious choices of world peace, end of world hunger, cures for diseases, etc. Any of those would take a much higher priority for me than the 5 items I’ve listed here.
1. Be loved unconditionally by my family
2. Love myself unconditionally
3. Vacation in Europe (Ireland, Paris, & Rome specifically)
4. Finish my degree
5. Learn to ride a bike (working on it!)
5 Things I’m really into:
1. Getting healthy - this includes weight loss & physical activity
2. Needlework - both cross stitching and canvas
3. Helping people - I love to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, MS Society, etc.
4. Pogo - love playing games there!
5. Gadgetry - love my iPod, BlackBerry, Garmin GPS watch, DVR, etc.
Until next time …
Rest in Peace, Christine
How does one miss a person they’ve never met? Even though I never had the honor of meeting Christine in person, I feel a sense of loss today at her passing. Christine was an active and vibrant part of the forums at Beginner Triathlete. Her logs there were titled “Pocket full of sunshine” because that’s how she viewed life.
She was a wife and a mother of two teenage sons. She finished the Ironman 70.3 Florida race on May 18 and walked a 5k race as recently as July 4th. She was even posting on the BT forums as recently as Saturday, but now she’s gone. 
Here are some photos of her from the Florida Half Ironman race:
Christine began noticing numbness and tingling in her left arm about a month ago. It then began progressing up to her face, and then down into her left leg. About a week later, she began having vision and balance/coordination issues as well. After seeing various medical professionals, last week the neurologist discovered a mass on her brain and scheduled further tests to determine the exact cause/nature of the mass.
She took a turn for the worse on Sunday and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. The neurosurgeon reviewed all of the CTs with the family and felt that this most likely was a hemangioma that had been sitting there, perhaps her whole life, like a time bomb, just waiting to go off. There really was not anything that could have been done at any point in time. Christine passed away yesterday, and as was her nature of being such a giving person, her organs were harvested and will be provided to those who need them.
Christine’s coach at the Hit The Trails store was already hosting a 5K race this Friday near Tampa. After hearing of her death, he has now stated that all proceeds from the race will go to her family. Many of us from the BT boards who knew Christine have registered for the race and will simultaneously do it virtually in our own cities. So, this Friday at 4pm PT, I will be participating in the Hit the Trails XC 5K race in honor & memory of Christine. Even though we never had the pleasure of running a race together in person, in my mind, she will be with me each step of the way on Friday.
Bike MS Michigan-style
My very dear friend Nick is once again riding in the Bike MS event in Michigan. This weekend marks his 6th year riding in this event. It’s a pretty grueling 150 mile ride over 2 days. This is just one of many such rides and walks sponsored each year across the country by local chapters of the National MS Society. Participants ride/walk for, and in honor of, people with Multiple Sclerosis so that hopefully one day they can find a cure for this debilitating and, sometimes, fatal disease.
One of my those people with MS is my sister Marilyn. She was diagnosed with MS about 8 or 9 years ago after she began experiencing “floaters” and blurriness in her vision. She went to see her eye doctor about this issue. He had, thankfully, recently attended a conference where the link between vision problems and MS were discussed. He referred her to a Neuroimmunologist at the MS Clinic at Vanderbilt Medical Center who ran a battery of tests and ultimately confirmed she had MS. At the time of her diagnosis, she was both a fairly recent newlywed and a new mom to my niece Casey. It was devastating news.
She has done fairly well over the years with treatment and has been able to lead a somewhat “normal” life. It hasn’t been easy though. Several years into her treatment, a routine test panel revealed that the Interferon was adversely affecting her liver (a somewhat common problem). So, she was forced to make a decision to lower her dosage of Interferon which increases the likelihood of experiencing the MS symptoms, or to continue with the normal dosage and run the risk of potentially needing to have a liver transplant down the road.
My sister opted for decreasing her dosage. This has resulted more symptoms, but she’s still doing fairly well otherwise and her liver panels are holding steady. The one symptom that has gotten noticeably worse is her balance. Even without drinking a drop of alcohol, she would be unable to pass a field sobriety test simply because she doesn’t have the balance capacity necessary to pass the tests. If her balance continues to deteriorate, she will eventually lose her driving privileges and, if it gets bad enough, end up having to use either a walker or wheelchair.
About 3 years ago, she was unexpectedly fired from a job at a small to medium-sized wholesale distributing company where she had worked for well over 10 years. Even though nothing was ever able to be proven definitively, the vast assumption by everyone involved was that her employer let her go due to the ever-increasing costs of providing my sister with medical insurance. Since her husband and his father owned a small trucking company together, he also did not have medical insurance, so they were forced to start paying for all of her medications out-of-pocket. There were many times, however, that if it was a bad month for the trucking company, that she went without purchasing her medication because they simply couldn’t afford it.
Fast forward to the end of January of this year. My brother-in-law was killed in a single-car accident on icy roads on January 31st. My sister was now an unemployed widow at the age of 45 with MS and two children under the age of 10. (In addition to my niece, my sister and her husband had taken responsibility a couple of years ago for raising his great-nephew, now 3 years old, because the mother had a drug abuse problem.) Finding a job in our current economy can be difficult enough on its own, but try finding a job when you tell the potential employer that you have MS. Fortunately, her father-in-law basically created a position for her at the trucking company to give her enough income to be able to feed her family, but she still doesn’t have any medical insurance and can’t afford to pay for an individual policy because of her pre-existing MS.
I’m not telling you guys all of this so that you will feel sorry for my sister. I’m sharing this to give you just one of the many faces of people living with MS. She’s just one story. There are so many more out there, some much worse than her own, since there are currently nearly a half million people in the U.S. living with MS with approximately another 200 people each week being diagnosed. This disease affects about 2.5 million people world-wide, most of whom are women since women are 2-3 times more likely to have MS than men.
So, if you are so inclined, I would be ever so grateful if you would make a donation to my friend Nick as he is riding his heart out this weekend, not only for my sister, but for all the others like her who are living with MS. The money does not go to him, but goes directly to the MS Society. Here’s the link one more time:
The MS Society is an wonderful organization that not only helps fund amazing research, but also uses the money raised to help support those already living with the disease. They locally fund both educational and recreational programs for MS patients and their families. They also assist patients financially and through advocacy as needed. They truly are an amazing organization and I’m honored to work with them at my local chapter here as well.
If you decide to make a donation, please accept my
Five Things Meme
TB posted this interesting twist on the Five Things meme on his blog in honor of his 1st anniversary of blogging. The rules are to post five things about yourself. The twist is that four of them should be true, but one should be false. I thought it sounded like fun, so I’ve decided to play along.
Here is my list of five things about me. I’ll leave it up to you to guess which is the false one. Of course, those of you who know me well will immediately know. 
- I’ve lost over 75 pounds on Weight Watchers.
- I drive a BMW.
- I once appeared in a TV commercial with Johnny Cash and Richard Petty.
- I have visited nearly 30 major league baseball parks.
- I once sang on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium (original home of the Grand Old Opry) in Nashville, TN.
On the weight loss front, I made it to my WW meeting on Tuesday. I was down another 1.4 pounds this week which makes for a total loss of 7.2 pounds since I rejoined on June 11. Immediately after I left the meeting, I went straight home and spent the next 36 hours violently ill with some sort of stomach bug. I’m finally starting to feel a bit human again, thankfully!
I’m still doing well with my no-cheat challenge as well. Today will be day 24, so I’m nearly half way to my goal of 50 days already! WOW! I can’t believe it’s gone by so quickly. It feels great to be in control of my eating! 
Training, quite naturally, came to a standstill this week. The only exercise I got was running to the bathroom to hurl. 
If I’m feeling up to it tomorrow, I may try and get out and at least do some walking. Since I’m still having some queasiness issues, I don’t think I’m up to trying anything more than that yet.
For all of my readers in the U.S., I hope you all have a safe, healthy, and happy Independence Day!
