goals for 2012

* finish the marathon upright. i have a "moon" goal time in mind -- as in, i'll be over the moon if i make it -- but my main goal is to finish.

* run at least one organized race per month

* learn to make a proper bermuda fish chowder (not running-related)

i don't have specific pace goals or overall mileage goals this year. last year, my primary goal was to qualify for the marathon (done!), and i had a side bet going with myself as to whether i could get my race pace down to 8 min/mile. i did hit 7:59 before the end of the year, but it was only in a 1.7-mile race, so i give myself partial credit.

reinvention, the four-quel

so i am back, with yet another new focus. a few years ago, i got bit by the NYC marathon bug. yes. i know. i used to say i'd only run when chased by a bear. so i guess i found my bear. i've been slowly working at it the past couple of years, and today i applied for the 2012 NYC marathon. i have guaranteed entry, so barring injury or crippling fear, i will toe the start line on the verrazano bridge with 45,000+ of my closest strangers on november 4, 2012. yes.

snowday the sequel!

we got another big snowstorm, and they closed our office right at the last minute this morning, so we got a second snowday this year! here are a few pics...

to give an idea how deep the snow was...



a couple snowy branches...





and some random close-ups...











and some snow dog to finish up.

2010 week1

ok, enough oh-nine recap, i think it's time to talk about oh-ten.

here are some things i want to do this year:

1. learn to use my new(er) camera better, and post photos every week.


(that would be my camera's instruction guide)

2. keep on running! i kinda quit doing this after we moved, but i want to get back into it. i'm debating signing up for a half marathon this year but not ready to commit to that just yet...



(training watch and book about the nyc marathon, both of which i got for xmas)

3. make one new recipe per month and post the recipe and photo.

4. project posts! i have plenty of projects these days, just need to post about them when i do them.

so there they are. wish me luck!

dear future homeowners (doorknob edition)

[i know we won't live in the condo forever, so i wanted to take the opportunity to fill in the future owners of unit 12 on a few little details. you know how you move into a place, and you think, "why on earth did the previous owners do THAT?" or "well, THAT would have been nice to know BEFORE i cut a hole through the drywall"? yeah.]
so, the doorknobs. this past weekend, the first of 2010, i replaced most of the interior doorknobs in the condo, because the previous ones were old, ugly and mismatched. the deadbolt on the front door also needs to be replaced but i haven't done that yet. also, the key to the lower doorknob also opens the storage unit, fyi.

regarding the interior doorknobs:

1. the right-hand screw on the knob to the closet in the master bedroom doesn't match. i'm sorry. if you noticed this already, i'll give you five bucks. apparently the internal threads on that side were borked, so the screw that was supposed to go there would not go in all the way, and it looked dumb sticking out. not to mention posed a threat to our knuckles. so i used a shorter screw from one of the old doorknobs instead, which is bronze-y instead of silver-y like the new door hardware, to secure the knob. i hope you can forgive me.

2. the knobs on the french doors from the living room are dummies.

3. i also replaced the handles on the bifold closet doors in the entry and hallway. (the old ones were really ugly. maybe i should make a little time capsule for you and hide it in the attic somewhere. i could include all the vestiges of the condo's former life. it would be weird.)

that's all for now!

yours,
truly

2009 week one revisited

In my first post of 2009, I mentioned a few goals for the year, and before I get too far into 2010, I thought I'd check back on my 2009 goals and see how I did. What can I say, I like to live dangerously.

Keep in close touch with family and friends.

i'd give myself a C on this. I'm not sure I did much better than I have in the past. There's room for more improvement. But just for kicks, here's a shot of this year's holiday cards.



Go see more music.

I don't get more than a C on this either. The condo mess kinda got in the way of things like this, so it's not entirely on me, but still.

Eat dinner at the dinner table.

I get an A for this one. Most nights we eat at the table, though we still cheat and use the coffee table in the living room sometimes. OK, maybe I get a B+.

Finally, I hope, when I start getting the Christmas stuff back out again, it will be in our very own house!

A+, mission accomplished. :) And we got a real live Christmas tree this year:



Next up, my 2010 "goals"...

long time, no blog

i think it's safe to say i did not succeed at my weekly photo project last year. mid-year, we finally closed on the condo and moved, and i just couldn't get into a regular groove of taking pics and posting them after that, so i sort of called it quits. but i'm back and i'm at it again, giving project 52 another shot (get it?).

also in the works, i revisit my new year's resolutions from 2009 and then kinda maybe sorta think about a few for 2010. i also have pics from a couple of small projects i did in the condo last year that i'd like to post.

let's see how far i make it this year, shall we?

On migraines

I woke up with a migraine this morning. Not a particularly bad one. But it inspired me to write a post all the same. I've suffered with migraines on and off for most of my life. I remember having them as a child. My mom had them as a child as well, so she recognized them when they cropped up in me (and my sister). I guess I had a form called cluster headaches. My mom gave me brewer's yeast supplements (four gigantic, brown, ugly pills a day) and taught me to massage my temples to help alleviate the headaches. At some point, I outgrew them.

I remember them coming back in college. I took lots of aspirin but it never really helped. They would get worse and/or more frequent for a stretch, then taper off again. More of the same in grad school I think. It never really occurred to me to see a doctor about it.

After grad school, one of my jobs required a lot of field work. I started noticing a few things. (1) My headaches were much more frequent on the weekends. (2) In the field, we'd spend the morning working outside, frequently in uncomfortably hot or cold weather. I'd be fine until lunchtime, when we'd go inside to more comfortable temps. Within 10 minutes of going back outside after lunch though, BAM!, headache. It seemed clear that stress and atmospheric changes were two of my migraine triggers. (In addition to red wine, dehydration (even mild dehydration), changes in sleep patterns, and low blood sugar -- all of which I identified over the course of the next few months to years.)

My headaches also started worsening. I'd wake up with a headache on Saturday morning and it would last all weekend, sometimes getting so bad that I would vomit from the pain. Vomit until my guts were empty and there was nothing left to bring up. Then I would have dry heaves. Not even water would stay down sometimes. And of course, the retching would make my head throb and pound even more.

Finally I mentioned this to a doctor. She sent me in for MRIs, because with sudden onset of severe headaches, they like to rule out neurological causes (like tumors, obstructed blood flow, etc). MRIs are pretty scary, that was the second time I've had one. This time I had a contrast and a non-contrast scan. Contrast is worse because they inject you with some nasty dye that makes your mouth taste like blood and copper, makes you feel like you have to pee, makes you feel weak and trembly, and generally is extremely unpleasant. The MRIs came back clean, and the doc diagnosed migraines and prescribed some kind of NSAID-sedative combo (I forget the name). These did help, mainly because they knocked me out while the painkiller took effect. But taking them basically put me out of commission for the day, as much as the migraine did. Over time, I needed to take more and more of them to get relief. Not good. Eventually they stopped working altogether.

Back to another doctor (I had relocated in the meantime), who suggested I should see a neurologist. DUH. Neurologist checked my MRI scans from before. ran some other tests, and prescribed some triptans. I tried a few different ones, many of which did not help. One did a little. But like the NSAID-sedative combo before, it really knocked me out. And it took longer and Longer and LONGER to bring relief. Then I noticed that after taking the triptans, my headache actually got worse before it would get better. And the headaches were increasing in frequency again, to the point where I was having them more often than I was allowed to take the triptans. (There's a limit on how often you can take them because frequent dosing can cause rebound headaches.) I started looking for other treatment strategies. Lying down in a dark, cool room with a cool damp mask or cloth over my eyes seemed to help a little, but again, took me out of commission. I found some peppermint infused eye masks at Bath & Body Works that really helped a lot, but of course they stopped making those. In addition, I started noticing that my headache never quite went away. The triptans would, after some time and much pain, take the edge off, but within half a day or so, the headache would be back, full-strength. Oh, also, triptans are EXPENSIVE, and my insurance would only allow me to receive a certain number in one prescription. Neurologist said the next step would be taking a daily medication to help prevent the migraines. However, there are no drugs currently available that were specifically developed for this purpose -- docs prescribe other drugs that seem to have secondary effects on migraines. These include beta blockers, antidepressants, anti-seizure meds and other heavy-duty drugs. Each of which, of course, has its own warnings and side effects. I was not keen on this idea.

Something had to give.

I spent some time thinking about what could have changed that suddenly caused my headaches to worsen so drastically, but couldn't think of anything. Until one day, I realized that the worsening sort of coincided with a new piercing I had gotten in the cartilage at the top of my ear. It couldn't be that, right? Right?! But the piercing never had healed up properly anyway, and I was desperate, so I took it out, just in case it was related to the headaches. And what do you know? Within a few weeks, the frequency and severity of my headaches was diminishing noticeably. I quit taking the triptans (which I never really liked anyway) and instead bought some OTC Excedrin for migraines. I was pretty shocked when it actually worked. I threw out the rest of the triptans and quit seeing the neurologist. The OTC drugs didn't knock me out or make me fuzzy all day, and they actually got rid of my headache completely. I was quite encouraged by my new success in treating my headaches, enough so that I pressed ahead in looking for a way to reduce them, or even eliminate them altogether.

I did some research online to find out the latest info on more natural, less distateful migraine prevention. I found a few studies that suggested that magnesium and/or B2 can help to "buffer" the expansion and contraction of blood vessels in the brain. (Blood vessel contraction, or vasoconstriction, is associated with migraine headaches; in fact, the NSAID-sedative drug I took for a while also included a vasodilator.) So I decided to give it a shot. I did some more research on magnesium and B2 supplements to find out which types and doses might be good and headed to the drugstore. I'm actually not a big proponent of across-the-board vitamin supplements, but I thought this would be worth a try. Whereas I was definitely not hip to taking daily doses of prescription meds (particularly off-label, and for a condition that I thought should be addressable with less drastic means), I was willing to try these daily vitamin/mineral supplements.

After a few weeks, I started feeling like I had fewer headaches. One major mistake I made is that I never kept a headache journal. This is really good idea, especially if you are evaluating various therapeutic or preventive strategies. In the most basic version, you simply record each headache that you have, date/time, any treatments undertaken, and the results. It is helpful to make notes every day, even when you do not have a headache, and to also record things like what you ate and drank (and when), time of onset of any headaches, headache severity (using any scale you like, as long as it is consistent), and anything else that you think might affect your headaches (stress level, atmospheric variations, etc). This can help you identify new triggers and assess the effectiveness of any treatments or preventions you may be using somewhat more objectively. In any case, I did not do this. Regardless, I definitely felt better. I was having headaches less often, they were less severe, and often a single dose of Excedrin for migraines would bring lasting relief, in less than an hour. So I continued with the supplements.

After a few months, having a headache became the exception rather than the rule. At that time, I noticed that if I didn't take the supplements one day, then I would have a headache the next day. But now that it's been a few years, I can skip a day or even two without necessarily having a headache. I wouldn't say that I am cured, but I will say that I have been able to successfully control my headaches for a few years now. They are much much less frequent and severe than they were, and when I do get one, I can usually knock it right out with some OTC NSAIDs and a quick nap, very manageable.

Can't tell you why I felt the need to write all that down, but there it is.

lumper or splitter?

this is basically a programming note of sorts.

you may (or may not) recall that i had three different blogs last year: a run-of-the-mill blog, a photo blog, and a blog dedicated to my various craft projects. this is because i like to have a place for everything and everything in its place, so i figured i should have different blog places for each of my blog interests. recently, though, i realized there is no reason why my blog interests can't all share the same blog place. so, i've decided to reverse my split decision and lump everything together here. i already imported my former craft-blog posts here, and soon i will be adding my journal-blog posts as well.

lumping and splitting are two different approaches to ecological taxonomy. taxonomy is, in one sense, the grouping of organisms according to their relatedness. relatedness is a continuous variable rather than a discrete variable, however, and there is not always a clear relatedness threshold for demarcating groups of organisms as different or the same. in this sense, taxonomy is somewhat subjective. some ecologists tend to allow a relatively high degree of variation within a taxonomic group, effectively 'lumping' organisms into fewer groups. others draw the group lines more finely, 'splitting' organisms into more groups.

i find the concepts of lumping vs splitting to be applicable to many types of organization, not just taxonomy. not surprisingly, i walk the line between lumping and splitting, as evidenced by my change of heart regarding my blog organization. what about you: are you a lumper or a splitter?

i take it back

soooooo, the new website that i mentioned below? just didn't work out the way i wanted it to. it loads SUPER SLOWLY (if at all), and i can't add it to my google reader. so i'm coming back to blogger! i plan to add posts for my daily pics for the month of august, which completed my project365. i would also like to do some retrospectives on my year of photos, but i don't know when that will happen...

because i am planning a new photo project for 2009: project52! a year's worth of weekly photos this time, instead of daily. some weeks will probably have more than one photo. maybe i will try to have my photos really reflect what i did each week, rather than just random things around me. we'll see. i plan to launch project52 at the start of 2009, so please come back soon!

and do check back for my last month of project365 posts. :)

new site!

so, i have launched my new site! it includes my project 365 pics for august, so you can catch up. i won't be updating this blog anymore, but i will keep it as my archive. so going forward, please direct your browser to http://web.me.com/monicabeth. thanks!! come visit and leave me lots of comments. :)

Circle of life

So Sean and I have closed the loop of scavenging in NYC. Today I rescued four dining chairs from their ignominious curbside wait for the garbage truck. I plan to redo them and will post my progress on my project blog. Be sure to check it out!

Redeye

Last night while brushing my teeth, I slipped and poked myself in the eye with my toothbrush. Real smooth, I know. This morning I was worried it might be infected since my eye was red and sore. But it seems to be ok, I think it's just irritated from the unsolicited brushing it received.

2 weeks later...

I'm over Oregon Trail and am now a PackRat junkie. This game should carry a warning for people with obsessive tendencies, because it's pretty dangerous. Whew. Let me try to remember what (if anything) else I've been doing.

Last Saturday I had lunch with my knotties, which was so much fun! What a great group of friends! Stopped by Crate & Barrel afterward to check out an entertainment center that I had seen online but wanted to see in person before buying. (With the new HD/DVR and speakers, we've outgrown our existing media storage unit.) It's awesome, even Nic and Jodi agreed! Still haven't ordered it yet though. I also stopped by Downtown Music Gallery and picked up three new CDs to help cheer up Sean, who was home sick with a cold. Poor guy, he never gets sick.

We've now beat the cold for the most part, so that's good.

My friend and coworker Kayla is moving to San Francisco, so Tuesday night we got together for happy hour with some other coworkers to wish her a safe trip and much happiness in Cali. That was fun too!

Other than that, it's just been work and PackRat for me.

Oregon Trail

So I'm now addicted to playing Oregon Trail on Facebook. I actually remember playing this game in school a hundred years ago. I am not much better at it now than I was then, but it's still fun.

The gist of the game is that you get a wagon and you invite your friends to join it. You have to keep enough supplies on hand to keep all your wagon members alive as you travel along the Oregon Trail. If your wagon members die, you can write a message on their tombstone and leave flowers there for them.

Blake had a wagon with me and Marisa on it, and he let us both die.

I started a wagon with Blake and Marisa the other night. Blake kept getting explosive diarrhea. Marisa got measles and brain fever and cholera. I gave them both medicine and they recovered. Then I woke up in the middle of the night with a migraine and for some reason started thinking about how Blake wrote "opps" on my tombstone (I believe this is Blake-speak for oops), and "dude quit dying" on Marisa's, and then I started cracking up. I am so weird.

Unfortunately the next day everyone on my wagon starved to death. The oxen ate all our food. Opps.

Spa weekend!

Great weekend. I flew to Austin to hang out with Kate and Eryn and meet Kate's new baby girl! We had a fabulous spa day on Friday (pics here). The weather was beautiful the whole time we were there! It was 20 degrees when I left NYC and about 75 when I got to Austin.

Eryn suggested I should blog about my shoes, so I'll start by sharing the ones I bought on Saturday:



The color is off in the photo... they are kind of teal or sea green, faux snakeskin flats with ankle straps. Too cute. I've been after some green shoes for a while, and these just called to me. On a completely unrelated note, DSW informed me via email today that a $10 coupon is heading my way. Woohoo!

While I was gone, the DirecTV guy came and got us all fixed up, so we are now in HD. Yay!

After work today I got my hair cut! Lots of layers, feels about 5 pounds lighter:





On my way home from Stacy's (who does my hair so wonderfully), the train conductor had a good Joisey accent. It reminded me of an funny NYC moment earlier this winter (last year). I got on the train one blustery day on my way home and noticed the conductor had a thick Jamaican accent as he announced the next stop. Doors closed, we proceeded to the next stop... where I noticed the conductor now had a funny Joisey accent. Odd -- maybe the conductors were taking turns making the announcements? Doors closed, we proceeded to the next stop, where the conductor had now developed a British accent. Chuckles and amused glances darted around the train; departing passengers offered thumbs-up signs to the conductor booth on their way out. The next stop was mine -- the conductor had a Southern accent that time. It was a happy surprise to end my commute with a smile.

Mid-week update

!. I am off to Austin tomorrow! (It is in the mid70s there; mid 30s here.) Hallelujah!

@. A tech from DirecTV is coming to put in the multi-switch for the HD satellite tomorrow! Hooray!

#. Tonight is America's Next Top Model! Yippee!

Addenda

1. We played Mega Millions two times this week but didn't win. :(
2. I signed Sean and me up for the Great Urban Race in June. Looks like fun!

Week in review

So maybe a weekly review will force me to update my blog more often. We'll see.

Major happenings this week: snow (!6-8 inches yesterday!) and fun with HD. A few weeks ago we charged into the 21st century and got a new LCD flat panel TV. Then of course we decided to upgrade from regular DirecTV to HD. And while we're at it, let's also join the DVR nation. So we ordered a new HD receiver from DirecTV with DVR built in. It arrived last weekend. Our installation instructions were as follows: Unplug the cable from the regular satellite into the HD satellite. Sounds easy right? One problem: there's no place to plug the cable into the HD satellite. No splitter.

So off I go to Radio Shack to purchase one, plus an HDMI cable to connect the new receiver to the new TV. After convincing the Radio Shack employee to take a short break from his very intense and very personal cell phone call, I figure out which splitter to buy and go on my merry way. Sean climbs up on the roof and hooks all this up. It seems to be working. Yay!

But it's not working quite right. It keeps getting hung up searching for satellite signals. So we call up DirecTV and spend inordinate amounts of time chatting with them, only to discover that (shockingly) the splitter we got doesn't work for HD and we should use the one they installed when they put up the HD satellite. Fine, except that they DIDN'T install one when they put up the HD satellite. Fun. So now we need a service call, and in the meantime, we are back to regular satellite. Poo.

(There's more to this story, but it's not that interesting.)

I saw another person on the subway a week or so ago that I wish I could have taken a picture of. The day before Valentine's Day, I left work early to go home and wait for the UPS guy. Sitting across from me on the subway is a guy, maybe around 30, wearing a wedding band, holding a dozen roses wrapped in paper, and dabbing at a split bloody lip with a balled-up napkin. Would love to know the story behind that one.

He joins two other subway riders I was itching to photograph (both of which I saw ages ago). First, a very large woman wearing a tight, low-cut top, who had stored her cell phone between her boobs. And second, an old guy nodding off in his seat, wearing a ball cap that said "Honk if you think I'm sexy".

Goodbye/hello

My old camera died so I bought a new one today.

You say goodbye...


I say hello!