rest in peace president hinckley

as some of you may or may not know, i was mormon for a few years in college and grad school. gordon b. hinckley, who has served as the president of the mormon church for the last ~12 years, passed away yesterday. i discovered this as i was glancing at the news on my lunch break today, and it left me in a bit of inner confusion for the rest of the day. pres. hinckley led the church the entire time i was a member, and as such, has had an impact on my life and a hand in shaping me, even if only a little, into who i am today. i admit, i feel like i have lost something...or maybe that a chapter in my life has now formally closed...i'm not quite sure yet what the inner confusion is.

i saw pres. hinckley speak for the first time in february of 2002. i don't know if it was something he said or the way he presented himself or what, but something struck a chord with me. a few years later i actually got to see him speak in person in hawaii. he had a presence about him that could calm you in an instant and he radiated good cheer. whether or not he is actually what members of the church believe him to be, he was a good man and inspired a lot of people to serve their fellow men. he will be missed.

cold is a relative thing

i never thought i would appreciate 60 and 70 degree weather so much, but man, this is amazing! i had heard a rumor that it was supposed to be nice this weekend, and when i woke up yesterday morning, the sun was shining and my room was really warm. so i threw on a tank top and some shorts to go out for a nice 20 miler. i opened the front the door and immediately re-thought my attire. i added a long sleeve shirt and some gloves because it was freezing outside. fifteen or so miles into the run though it started to get warmer, and after grabbing a quick bit to eat after my run, i busted out the gardening tools and spent more time outside. the nice weather has continued and it is another beautiful day today. my roommates and i are all sitting outside on the porches with our laptops "working." actually we are working in a way...just on our vitamin d deficiencies and not necessarily our homework.

on a cold related note though, i learned something interesting while doing some physiology reading for my biomedical engineering systems class. ever wonder why your fingers turn blue (or purple) when you get cold? you've probably heard it's due to poor circulation, but this explanation never told me exactly why my fingers turn the color they do when i get cold. the blue/purple color itself is due to deoxygenated blood hanging out in your finger tips and not getting pushed back to the heart due to the poor circulation mentioned earlier (explanations of poor circulation are another can of worms--or blood vessels--entirely).

retired goggle usage

if you're a swimmer, you've likely gone through a pair of goggles or two in your lifetime, but did you ever wonder what to do with your when you could no longer wear them for practice? well, wonder no more. as my housemate drake is demonstrating in the picture, goggles can be worn in the kitchen to prevent one from crying while cutting onions. in fact, goggles work so well, that drake felt no eye irritation at all during a single seven onion cutting bout this afternoon. just a warning though: wearing goggles in the kitchen does not alleviate fogging issues. after about 10 minutes in a hot kitchen, the goggles will begin to fog and large condensation droplets may form. we have yet to work out the best fog prevention mechanism for dry land use of goggles, but we'll keep you posted. in the meantime, put those old goggles to use and enjoy your next onion cutting session tear-free!

body choir

think hippies freestyle dancing in their pjs and that is roughly what body choir is like. i attended a session last night for the first time, and i have to say it was quite a liberating experience. the only rules are that you don't wear shoes (socks are optional), that you don't talk and that you be mindful of other people's personal space (i.e. this is not like going clubbing). there is a 'dj' that plays music--every type of music you can imagine, but mostly songs without words. fast, slow, rock, techno, turkish, you name it, it probably gets played. and people just dance. actually, if you are a terrible dancer by most definitions, you'd probably fit right in here--not that people are bad dancers because there are some very good ones, but this is more an exploration of movement, for lack of a better way of putting it. i danced, i skipped around the room with a friend or two, some people rolled around on the floor and others did aerial poses. i had a really big smile on my face the entire evening. if you like to dance, this is something you need to try.

Here is a link to info about Body Choir in Austin:
http://www.bodychoir.org/

tuna and jelly sandwiches

don't knock them before you try them. sometime in the last few years, i was told that from a nutritional perspective, the best recovery food is a tuna and jelly sandwich. it has carbs (simple and more complex carbs), protein and a little bit of fat. today, one of my housemates came in from a workout and asked me what the best recovery food was, so i promptly responded that it was a tuna and jelly sandwich. here's the catch though, while i knew that in theory it was the best recovery food, i had never met anyone that had actually tried it. but my roommate, trusting soul that he is decided to go for it. as a couple of us sat around watching, he informed us that it was actually not too bad. so i went out for my run and then fixed myself a tuna and jelly sandwich. i have to say that i agree with my roommate on this one. it's actually pretty good. bon appetit!

hot or not

Just for you Rory. Here are a few pictures of the group I went out with for New Years in NYC...although I'm not sure the photos do full justice to the cuteness of my dress.


I got to play the Hot game in Austin last night for the first time. For those, not familiar with the Hot game, it involves getting into the car, rolling up all the windows and turning the heat on as high as it can go. The first person that has to crack the window because they're too hot loses. Playing this game was preceded by kayaking at sundown in shorts on Town Lake. If you're ever in town, I would recommend doing this--but make sure you do it when the sun is out. One of my housemates and I rented kayaks and then paddled up to the nearest dam and hung out for a bit. There are a lot of turtles in Town Lake.

The German Haus also hosted a back-to-school party last night to say goodbye to those who are taking off and welcome back to all returning (or new) for the term. I found/met a new friend from Brazil who salsa dances and I got to dance quite a bit! Guys--I highly recommend learning how to salsa, merengue, etc. Girls (or at least this one) find it very impressive. This was the first time I've really gotten to hangout with my housemates without having to worry about homework since this past summer. My second New Year's resolution is to be more social this term--hopefully I won't be too far derailed from this goal following the onset of classes.

why it is good to live in texas

a month or two ago a friend of mine offered me some sage advice: stop evaluating your days as good or bad on your ultimate scale of good or bad and stop comparing the days to days in other places. start evaluating them on a texas scale he advised. i feel that as i have become a glass-is-less-than-half-full person since coming to texas my new year's resolution is to be more positive (and as a consequence, mind my friend's advice).

so onto today's positive thought about texas. i got out of work today and it was 81 degrees. yep, that's right, 81. it was awesome. i was so warm, and it was fantastic. much better than the 18 degree nyc weather.

and now for something completely different. my race went pretty well this past weekend. i was the 4th female overall (actually i think i might have been 5th, but one of the women was over 40 so she got a master's award), and finished in just under 6 hours. the first 10 miles were rough--up and down hills. i like running up hills, but coming back down hills on crappy trails with lots of crumbling rock is not my idea of a good time. the last 20 miles were pretty awesome because i actually got to run. but back to the first 10 miles...as i was struggling down the hills and getting passed by everyone i started thinking about various races i'd done. people told me that ironman would be an emotional roller coaster. i really only remember it being 12+ hours of bliss. ultramarathons, on the other hand, seem to be able to elicit the roller coaster effect. for all intents and purposes, i was crying in the first 5 miles of this race, had blood all over my legs (from the brush scraping me) and it is a real blow to the ego to see large men blowing past you on the downhills. but the terrain evened out a little bit, and there were rolling hills...and all of a sudden, i was the only one running. i started passing people left and right...and then the sun came out...and then i tripped over a rock and faceplanted in the middle of the trail. overall, it was a good experience. i'm not sure if i'll do that specific race again, but it might be fun. i suppose i have to keep doing them now though to figure out what i'm made of...it's those dark moments in the middle of the race where you really don't want to be there but you know you can't quit that you learn something about yourself. i'm not sure it's good to keep going after that, but i feel that i come out a stronger person in the end.

the ground nutmeg wall

did you know you could paint your walls in colors that have spice names? thanks to a little bit of boredom and some plain white walls, i was able to amuse myself the other day by painting a wall in my brother's apartment "ground nutmeg" (see photo). it's a dark orange color--slightly darker than texas orange. some might be scared if they showed up at home to find a single orange wall in their living room, but in the case of my brother's apartment, it turned out quite nicely. in fact, it looks downright trendy, and the guys like it a lot. the take home message from this experience? if you're not sure what to get your yuppie sibling (no offense) for christmas (or you just have some time on your hands because it's 18 degrees F outside), i recommend giving him or her an orange wall.

18 degrees, by the way, is a ridiculously low temperature that i had had the pleasure of not experiencing for several (if not more) years. on the upside of this though, at some point between the 50 and 18 degree weather i experienced while in nyc, the weather conditions afforded me the opportunity to see snow for the first time in several (if not more) years.

i am presently looking forward to being back in texas (gasp), but mostly just because it's supposed to be in the 70s this weekend...and i will be playing outside all day tomorrow (saturday 1/5) because i'm running the Bandera 50k (www.tejastrails.com/bandera.html). it is a trail race, and will be the first race of my 2008 season. i'm not sure how it will go though...i ran dallas a few weeks ago, and did the weird in-between-marathon-recovery-taper-buildup over the holidays. normally this would be fine, but i think i managed to put on a little bit of insulation to help protect me from the cold so this race will also serve as a run-myself-back-into-shape race before massive amounts of bike riding (in prepartion for texas 4000) and running (in preparation for Boston 2008) commence.

happy new years to all

this was my first time doing new years in nyc. we started off the evening with dinner at my brother's apartment. at some point during dinner, i mention i have a cute dress i'm going to wear, so my brother's roommate's girlfriend decides that she too will dress up. the guys decide on suits, blue shirts and white ties. needless to say, when we rolled out, everyone looked great. i party hopped until the wee hours. it was a great new years. the hangover was a bit rough this morning, and i managed to stay in bed until noon (or so). i may have accomplished a feat like this in college (once), but i cannot say that it is a regular experience in my life. later in the day, i got to watch the penguins play the sabres (nhl) in the first nhl regular-season outdoor hockey game. the game was played in buffalo. it was snowing and the wind was up to 30 mph...and yet the entire stadium was packed. now it is time to focus on the uh game!

new years resolutions to follow!