Monday, November 29, 2010

I'm thankful

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday. I am so sad to report that I was sick with the flu for most of  it. What a bummer! I am still not feeling my best, but this post is terribly overdue, so back to work I go. 

In the spirit of the holidays, I made a list of the things I am thankful for in my life. I don't know about you, but I feel very fortunate to have all of the things that I have, and so many wonderful people in my life. This is the old "top ten" list, although none of these has any more weight than the other. I am equally thankful for each of these things.
1. I am thankful for a husband who, while not always thrilled by my running, is supportive of me running marathons, training for triathlons, and traveling for them all.
2. I am thankful for an eleven year old girl who is truly her own person. She is unique and special and I am so lucky she is mine.
3. I am thankful for a four-year-old boy who can always make me laugh. He lights up any room he is in and can make anyone feel special and loved.
4. I am thankful for a two-year-old boy who feels the need to constantly be fully decked out in a costume, mask and all. It's such a pleasure to have coffee with Batman, Darth Vader, or Buzz Lightyear each morning.
5. I am thankful for two legs that allow me to continuously abuse them with high-mileage races and super-high heels and stay injury free.
6. I am thankful for my extended family. Although I have learned in my adult life that we are not exactly the most traditional Ward Cleaver family model; we have our own thing going on and make it work for us.
7. I am thankful for my in-laws. They are most definitely the Ward Cleaver family model, and it is nice to have that kind of traditional influence in my life.
8. I am thankful for Nike. 'nuff said.
9. I am thankful for my book club friends. We are an eclectic mix of ladies, and it is so wonderful to be part of a book club that doesn't actually require the reading of the book.
10. I am thankful for my blog readers. I can't believe it has been almost a year since I started this blog. I have had a fantastic time writing over the last year, and knowing that people actually read it makes it that much more motivating.

There you have it....I am definitely thankful for many more things than this, but the post needs to end sometime. Do you have a thankful list?

Thursday, November 11, 2010

go, google, go

Yesterday while I was logging miles on the stationary bike (boring as hell, but a great cross-train), I saw on the news that google is giving their employees a $1,000 holiday bonus and a ten percent raise. Ten percent, in this economy, where companies are taking benefits away from their employees left and right just to stay in business.Wow. 
Naturally, my first thought was, "I need to work for google."  But then I started thinking about how many times I use google during the day. It is a TON. I google everything. If I want to know anything about anything, I google it. If I want to get a fresh perspective, I google it. If I am looking for ideas..google.  You get the picture; I'm a googler.  And apparently I am not alone, since the company is raking it in.

Any company that can turn its name into a verb has my vote.
Are you a googler? 

Thursday, November 4, 2010

oh, technology

Since running the Nike marathon I have been plagued with an incredibly disturbing problem....my nikeplus sensor.  If you remember, I am a dedicated nikeplus user (actually a dedicated nike anything user...I love their stuff), and one enormous perk of being a nikeplus user for this race was that we would be entered into a drawing for free admittance to next year's nike marathon if we uploaded our race within a certain period of time. I wore my nike sportband for the race instead of my ipod.  It was, by far, the longest I have ever run without music, and I was feeling awesome about the sportsband and how it allowed me to go "wire free" for such a long time.

Until I tried to upload my (26.2 mile) run.

Apparently the geniuses at nike decided to run a firmware update right around the time the marathon finished, and so my run (and a bunch of other people's runs) disappeared into cyberspace, never to be heard from again. It is beyond frustrating. First of all, I really like to see those miles graphed out on paper once I have run them. That is where I reflect on where I was struggling the most and when I was the fastest. I use that information on future runs in the hopes of getting better (and qualifying for my mistress-bitch race, Boston). Secondly, I need tangible evidence that I completed those miles. I just do. It's how I'm wired. I know I ran them. I want proof, though. It motivates me.

So now I am stuck with a ton fewer miles on my profile than I actually ran, and I don't get to be entered into the drawing for next year's race. 

I'm gonna need to see something pretty phenomenal from you in the future, nike...this was a big slip-up.