Monday, July 23, 2007

My take on HP and the DH

Don't worry...I'm not going to give out any spoilers. =)

LOVED LOVED LOVED IT!!!!!

I finished it yesterday. Since I started on Saturday afternoon, I only stopped reading for dinner, sleep, and Sunday morning yoga class. Oh yeah, and the occassional bathroom break. :)

When I have the time, I will probably re-read it just because there were so many things going on that I'm sure I missed some relevant details. It was like an emotional roller coaster, with many twists and turns. There were times where I think something is going to happen and I'm already crying reading into it, then it turns into something else. I'm so glad I didn't get spoiled from the beginning. Otherwise, I would have been cheated out of the experience.

I cannot wait when they make this book into a movie because it will be like non-stop action packed from start to finish. I just hope they make it longer than the last movie. If you think about it, HP fans are die-hard enough to stay in line for hours and hours (days even!) then spend hours more immediately afterwards reading the book non-stop. I'm sure making the movie a little longer won't stop them from seeing it. Hey, it worked for Lord of the Rings, I'm confident it's going to work for the HP movies. I just felt like the OOTP movie, although pretty good IMO, left a lot of details out and I hope they don't cheat us out of the experience for the 2 remaining movies.

Oh, and I think Molly Weasley had THE BEST line in the book. :)

That's it....

Saturday, July 21, 2007

A weekend date with HP

12 miles LSD run - CHECK!!!

Very painful run, particularly the last mile. I commend you all runners who have run 1/2 and full marathons! I don't know how I'm going to squeak out that last 1.1 mile - maybe on my hands and knees!

HP and the Deathly Hallow - CHECK!!!

Picked it up right after my run. Probably treated the bookstore workers with a whiff of my sweaty self. Hahaha!!!! Man, this book is huge!

Kleenex - CHECK!!!

J.K. Rowling made no secret that 2 main characters are going to die in this book. I also saw an interview where she said that if you cried on the last book when Dumbledore died, you will DEFINITELY cry on Book 7...sniff, sniff...I have my suspicions of who are going to die. And it totally sucks if one of them comes true!!!!!

Friday, July 20, 2007

5K Race - Yes another one :)

I did another race last Wednesday night and it went a lot better than the Tex Mex one. The primary goal of this race is to get some speed work in, and hopefully to finish in under 30 minutes.

I was dreading this race because we were having a severe thunderstorm as I was driving to the event. Thankfully, it cleared up as soon as I pulled into the parking lot. Perfect timing!

The weather was very humid, but not as hot as Tex Mex. Still hot though. We lined up and I remember seeing a group of young girls, probably from some school's cross country team, lining up in front of me. All I can think of was these girls better not run together or if they plan to do so be way ahead of me. :)

We heard the gun shot and we were off. I ran at a comfortable pace and reached the 1-mile mark in 9:10, which is really good for me! Unfortunately around the 2-mile mark, I experienced some burning on my right shin. I had to take two short walking breaks before everything was said and done. I probably could have pushed through but I didn't want to get shin splints for real to add to my knee issues and to hinder my half marathon training even more. The downhills were also quite uncomfortable on my knee.

But, I finished in 29:27 at 3.11 miles, according to Garmin!!! I was pleased with this since I wasn't going all out due to my knees (only towards the finish) and I was just gunning for under 30 minutes. I looked like a drowned rat by the time I finished. I don't remember ever sweating that much!

The post-race buffet was pretty good. They had turkey sandwiches, chicken wings, fuits, etc. I loved the chicken wings!!!

I'm not sure what was up with the shins during the race. The shoes I wore only had 230 miles in it, not even close to the supposed 300-400 miles lifespan of an average running shoes. I did go for an easy 4-miler the following morning wearing my other running shoes and no shin splints whatsoever. Hmmm...must be because I'm a heavy plodder that I wear out my shoes a lot quicker. :o)
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HP follow up:

I pre-ordered Deathly Hallow from a local bookstore. No, I'm not planning on going to any midnight release parties. I don't want to be spoiled! I'm going out for my long run on Saturday morning, but earlier than normal so I can pick up my book afterwards and still have plenty of time to read it this weekend. I didn't order the book online for a reason. If it happens to come to my house early enough before I'm out for my run, there's a good possibility that I won't be able to leave the house. ;-)

For all you HP fans, Happy Reading! Or Happy Listening (in Katiefeldmom's case)!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Depressed

I make no secret that I'm a big Harry Potter fan. Well, I've been reading a lot of reports that the book has been leaked. And those that had the misfortune of being spoiled are not happy with the ending. :-(

I haven't read the leaked story and have no intention of doing so. But I'm kind of dreading Book 7 now.

As long as J.K. Rowling doesn't kill Harry Potter (of course!), Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Ginny Weasley I'll be a happy camper. :0)

Unbelievable! I'm getting all worked up over a children's book!!! LOL!!!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Breakthrough!

11.04 miles in 2:06:47!!!!

I finally broke through the 10 miles barrier!

I know it's turtle slow to some. That did include several loooong stops waiting for the traffic light to change. Nevertheless, I am pumped!!!!

Knees are okay. I still haven't gotten the x-rays because of craziness at work. BUT, it actually feels better! It's more of a sensitivity now than actual pain (although it really wasn't that painful to begin with), and I've been very mindful of it and taking it a little bit easy on my runs, but I still plan to get it taken care of.

So now that I'm done with my long run for today, I'm off to take a shower (ewwww!!!), eat lunch, go to the running store coz my 2-bottle hydration belt is no longer sufficient, do some cleaning and laundry, then dinner and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie!!!!

Have a great weekend!

Monday, July 09, 2007

Bored and watching wierd shows

I'm a big fan of the Travel Channel. And in my previous post, I have expressed my desire to have Samantha Brown's job. I mean, who wouldn't want to travel the world and stay at the most expensive hotels for a living?

BUT, this is one tv host's job I would absolutely not want to do no matter how much you pay me.


His name is Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods. As the name implies, he travels the world in search of the most bizarre foods imaginable! He eats all these wierd stuff and seems to enjoy them! Yuck! Most of the time I cringe every time I watch it! Oddly enough, I can't stop watching it! :-D
At tonight's episode, he's sampling the culinary delights of Trinidad & Tobago. In the first half hour alone, he has managed to consume curried green iguana and raw conch penis.
Now, I love sushi, but come on!!!!

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Independence Day Recap

My 4th of July holiday went well! We just had a small get-together at my brother's house and my mom ordered some food from the local caterer. Very low key, very relaxing, and exactly what we busy people needed!

I was supposed to run on a 5K that morning. Woke up early, got ready, and as soon as I walked out the house, I turned back around. It was raining hard and it was cold! Just didn't feel like running outside at that point. So I waited until the rain stopped and headed out. I went to a local park and set off to run a 5K on my own. I felt great throughout my run and completed the distance at 28:50, which is exactly my 5K PR on a race! Now I'm sort of kicking myself for not doing the race because I usually do A LOT better on races. To add salt to injury, the rain stopped at 8 am, which is the start time of the race. BUT, I usually like to warm up and stretch before a race, which I would rather not do during cold rains. So it's all good!

That night, I met up with a friend for dinner and movie. We saw Transformers, which I highly recommend! Surprisingly, the plot was really good and not cheesy at all. The comedic scenes were effective. Optimus Prime retained his coolness! Josh Duhamel provided the requisite eye candy for the women, as well as Megan Fox for the guys. But I think Shia LaBoeuf made the movie! Like I said, highly recommended! :)

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So I finally saw the doctor about my knee issue. She seems very pleased that I run and like the fact that I'm training for a half marathon. She said that since I'm a runner, she wants to treat my knee issue aggressively. So I have to get x-rays to rule out arthritis and have to make an appointment with a orthopaedic surgeon to get to the root of the problem. She also prescribed some pain killers. However, she did not forbid me from running. ;-)

Before the doctor came to the examination room, the nurse took my vitals and pointed out that I have a slight fever (99F). I felt fine and told her so. I also told her that it might be because I just took a shower before going to the doctor's office. In reality, it's probably due to the fact that I just ran 5 miles that morning (before the said shower) in the hot, humid weather. ;-)

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Oh, and the concert! (Katie - Thanks for reminding me!) It was awesome! I got there just as the opening act was ending. Fortunately, the opening act was Lori McKenna and not Taylor Swift. I would have made it a point to come there extra early if it was Taylor Swift.

Anyways, I followed the seat numbers on my ticket and wouldn't you know there were already people who can't read on my seat! They told me I was in the wrong section. Unfortunately, my friends were not there yet. So I went out again and tried to find one of the ushers, which took a while! At this time, Tim & Faith were already singing their opening song, which wasn't that big of a deal since it's not one of their songs. Anyways, the usher relocated the idiots who can't follow seat #s, thankfully! I wasn't about to argue with idiots and had the usher fight the battle for me.

In the middle of the concert while Faith Hill was singing "Breathe", a fight ensued somewhere below us. I'm guessing it's a seat issue again and some people are just not willing to budge coz they were drunk! Who would have thought that a fight would occur at a Tim and Faith concert!

Overall, a great experience! My voice was hoarse coz I was singing all through the concert. Can you tell I'm a big fan? I'd definitely see them again!

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Adventures in driving

My drive to work yesterday was CRAZY!!!! Basically, my 20 minutes drive turned to an hour! Which was even worse because it's the holidays and there shouldn't be any traffic!

I set about my normal route when I hit a roadblock. I knew there was another way further up, so I went straight. Again, another roadblock. Don't exactly know what was going on, but I kept going straight until I could find a way to easily turn around.

I ended up going back, past my house, then had to take a road I avoid at all cost because of the traffic. At this time, I had no choice! So I finally got to this dreaded road, which not only is always BUSY but also had construction going on. I had to wait for the construction guys to let me go. Once I got passed the construction area, I had to follow this huge eighteen-wheeler which had to sloooowwwwly navigate through the tight turns.

Finally, I got passed this dreaded road and onto smooth traffic. Until I hit this other road and I got stuck behind a slow driver. WTF! It's not even Sunday! By this time, I was smoke-coming-out-of-my-ear-pissed! The driver thankfully eventually made a left turn which cleared the way for me and the open range!

BUT just as I thought it was smooth sailing to work, the most unexpected thing happened...I HIT A BIRD! Not like a big geese or anything. But a small bird flying low who just happened to fly in front of my car. I hit the little bugger with the nose of my SUV, then it bounced onto my windshield, then above my car. Hopefully it's gone, but I'm getting my dad to check it tomorrow coz the thought of a dead bird staring at me gives me the creeps. From what I can see from the ground, the top of my car is clear. But you never know.

So that's it! Thankfully, my drive into work this morning was uneventful. :-D

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Thank you all for your comments on my abominable race. I agree that I have to accept that I'm not always "on". And I did finish...and not last, which is good. AND I found out that I beat my former three-times-removed boss by a minute and a half! I used to work for this guy's organization (same company) and his reputation is somewhat questionable. I saw him when I was at the starting line and when I realized I wasn't going to do well on the race, I made myself a goal to at least beat him. Mission accomplished! :0)

On a running related news, I finally bit the bullet and made an appointment with my doctor about my knee issues. It's actually not bothersome when I run, but it does bother me when I've been sitting for a while and I start walking all of a sudden. I've accepted the possibility that I may not be able to do the half marathon this September, depending on the prognosis with the knee. But I'm at peace with that. When it comes right to it, I would rather keep on running for the long term and there's going to be plenty of races in the future. I have to get this taken care of first. Of course, that will be $40 down the drain coz I already paid the half marathon registration, but it's a small price to pay in my opinion. All is not lost though! Please send positive vibes and prayers that the prognosis is not serious and it does not interfere too much with my training!

That's about it! Happy 4th of July!!!!!