Check out those drumsticks!
Hello, little frog.
12
Monthly Archives: February 2010
Oreo cake.
I had my first really successful tempo run yesterday. The plan called for four miles at approximately half marathon pace (~9:05 min/mile), but I managed to hold my tempo miles at sub-9:00 pace. At this point, I don’t know what paces I “should” be running because I race so conservatively. Oh well, I’d prefer to err on the safe side than constantly push my body and battle injury.
Here are my splits:
- Warm-up mile – 9:43
- 8:48
- 8:24
- 8:28
- 8:28
- Cool-down mile – 9:37
The French department is in the middle of MA season right now. Though my blog makes it sound like I am the only person ever (in the history of the universe!) to suffer through a Master’s Exam, the department is in the process of determining the fates of many others. Fortunately, Brian and [Blonde] Dan finished their oral exams on Friday and were given permission to pass to the PhD stage. Congratulations to both of them!
I made Brian an Oreo cake:
(Glazed Devil’s food cake, with sweetened cream cheese, Cool whip, and crushed Oreos in the middle)
Too bad he went to Chicago for the weekend and won’t get to eat it until tomorrow…
Birth parent searches suck.
It has been over a year since I initiated a search for my biological parents. Apparently, Holt in Korea knows my birth mother’s name and ID number, which is much more information than many people have.
Most of my requests for information and updates on progress go unanswered. Additionally, my US agency promised to send me an update at the end of January, but I haven’t heard anything.
I don’t even know if my agency in Korea is attempting contact, if contact has been made, or if my biological mother has flat-out refused to have anything to do with me.
Whine, whine, whine. But, seriously, WTF, Korea? You have enough money to pump into endorsing your champion figure skater, but you clearly haven’t developed the infrastructure to deal with the generation of adoptees, whom you sent away, who are now adults and want some answers.
Edit: I called my US agency today to ask about the update I was supposed to receive at the end of January. The social worker assigned to searches said that she hadn’t heard anything. I expressed my frustration, and she said that there is nothing I can do. Apparently, post-adoption searches are under-funded, and active adoptions take precedence over past ones.
Lucky me.
Thank you, everyone, for the good luck wishes for my Master’s Exam! It really picked me up to read all of the comments over the weekend, while I was furiously trying to recall everything I’ve learned in the past two years.
For those who can’t read French, Rebecca wrote “Merde” (‘shit’) because in France, it is bad luck to wish someone “good luck.” I just learned this and cringe to think how many French men and women I have inadvertently cursed with my well-intentioned good wishes. I applaud you, Rebecca, for being not only a good friend, but a culturally-considerate one at that!
The exam itself went…
In short, I am alive and relieved that the written portion is over. Apparently, no one feels good about his/her answers, so I will, for the moment, be satisfied.
A well-timed Valentine’s/”good luck” package came from Roommate Tina on Friday afternoon. Inside were cheese snacks for the boyfriend and oriental rice crackers for me. (Roommate Tina and I have a theory that only Asian people like these.) Also, there was a bag of delicious jam cookies (like Jammie Bodgers!), some of which I brought with me to the exam.
Today, I received a nice present from Mom: a book of cupcakes. I am really excited to try out some of the recipes and even more excited to stuff the results of my experimentation in my mouth!
Finally, I took some time tonight to bake peanut butter cookies for the boyfriend to bring to his weekly poker game. Thanks to the lighting and shadows, they look particularly ominous in this photo:
The oral component of the exam is over next Friday (March 5th), which is when the committee decides if I am MA-worthy. Until then, posting will be somewhat sporadic. No matter what the outcome, I hope that when it is over, I can go back to being a more pleasant person, both in my on-line and “real world” presence.
Blog hiatus.
The first part of my MA exam is on Monday, February 22nd. (The second part is Friday, March 5th.)
I am on blog hiatus until at least then, preferably until I can get my life under control.
For now, here are the splits of my last two runs.
A “tempo” run yesterday:
- 10:09
- 9:07
- 8:27
- 8:22
A steady run with Lena today:
- 10:23
- 9:42
- 9:33
- 9:33
Good-bye for now, friends. I hope that when I return, I have my shit together.
My little teapot.
I paced Lena for a tempo run today. I’m not sure that we actually succeeded at running a tempo since we didn’t hold a constant pace, but we did run a more taxing run than we normally do together. Here are our splits:
- Mile 1 – 9:39
- Mile 2 – 9:12
- Mile 3 – 8:55
I just checked the Ryan Hall plan, and there are some long tempos in there. I guess I better work on my endurance. (Jessica, are you up for dragging my sorry bum around C-U any time soon?)
Afterward, I asked Lena to take some pictures of me running.
(I have so many photos of this exact point, mid-stride. It looks so awkward.)
I bought new [actually tight] tights over the weekend, so I don’t have to wear my baggy back-up pair anymore. They’re Under Armour ColdGear tights, and they are very tight (Hello, muffin top!). Oh well, they keep my legs warm, and I can fold over the extra fabric so that they’re not too bunched up around my ankles…
I also bought a smaller capacity teapot yesterday on a whim because (1) it is cold in the apartment and (2) I am combating stress about my upcoming MA Exam with conspicuous consumption, both monetary and caloric.
(Confused and cold.)
This photo pretty much sums up how I feel right now:
(Confused and cold.)Devil winter.
This is what the back porch looks like:
Here are some ferocious icicles hanging off of the second-floor apartments, ready to fall and impale us.
And here is a random broken wizard figurine in the parking lot behind the house:
Welcome to the Midwest. How many more months of this?
Valentine’s chez moi.
How to celebrate Valentine’s Day/Korean New Year (Seollal), Mica-style.
Start the day with a six-mile run with Lena:
- 10:44
- 10:03
- 10:00
- 9:52
- 10:08
- 9:30
Get flowers from the boyfriend (Awww.):
Bake chocolate chip cookie-topped brownies for the boyfriend:
Dress up/humiliate household pets:
Scare the dog with the French bulldog 2010 calendar:
(Study French linguistics and temporarily hate your life.)
Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Seollal, everyone!
Olympic let-down.
Yesterday morning, while I was making breakfast, Bodger was barking his freakin’ head off at the pantry door. When I looked over and told him to stop, I realized that he wasn’t, in fact, barking at the door. He was barking at the February photo in my French bulldog calendar.
“Stay back, intruder!” says Bodger.I’m not going to lie. The Opening Ceremony wasn’t very entertaining last night. Way to suck it up majorly, Vancouver. On the positive side, who knew that Canadian entertainers DOMINATED the American popular media? I, for one, didn’t. Those tricky Canucks…
Fortunately, Lena brought over a delicious feast AND her friend Alex (not pictured, whoops!).
Golden beet and mushroom stir-fry.
Butternut squash and lentil soup.
“His & Her” whole-wheat cakes.
Today, I did a seven-miler, my longest run in awhile. My left IT-band was twinging quite a bit towards the end. I hope that goes away with some stretching. In the mean time, I’ll keep it relatively easy.
Here are my splits:
- 10:15
- 10:05
- 9:39
- 9:49
- 9:44
- 9:23
- 9:22
One of these days, I’ll learn to hold a constant pace…
Dopey dog.
I ran three miles in the afternoon today. I was sliding all over the place in some patches, but I still managed a decent pace:
- 10:06
- 9:08
- 9:09
I do hate running on snowy sidewalks.
Jessica, since my last post was lacking in Bodger photos, this is what he looks like every night, when he wakes up from a nap:
(And this is how I look post-run, without a shower.)
Ugh, we feed him “salmon and sweet potato” food, and he has some stinky-ass fish breath right now.