Steve and I took a walk tonight around the Wetlands here in Zeeland, and it was so relaxing! We spent the better part of half an hour (or more, I'm not really sure) just standing there observing all the millions of tadpoles and listening the frogs croaking excitedly at each other. We wandered around to a different part of the pond and counted at least 12 different frogs poking their heads out of the water! Okay, so one of those "frogs" turned out to be a turtle (!) but still, behind us there were two more frogs, so really, it works out.
We saw a mama duck and her babies and went over to see them more closely, but when we got too close they scurried up the bank into the woods. Steve was a bit disappointed that the ducks "wouldn't come out to play" but we did get a close-up view of a red-winged blackbird. It chattered at us for intruding on its territory.
All in all, it was a very peaceful experience. I loved every single minute of it!
May 31, 2009
May 17, 2009
theories on laundry
I was thinking this afternoon while folding laundry, and I decided that this particular household chore (the folding, not the laundry itself) is a waste of time and energy. I mean really, at some point this week we're just going to put these same clothes on (I see the same clothes week after week...hey, we all have our favorites!) and wear them till they're all wrinkly and smelly again. In theory, I could just leave them all in a pile and we could dig through them for what we want.
Ok, so this only works for us in theory because after a while, I would get tired of that massive pile of clothes getting in my way and mingling with our dirty clothes that inevitably never make it into the hamper. Not to mention that while I'm not what you'd call a neat freak, I prefer smooth clothes over wrinkly any day. So, until Steve makes enough money to hire someone to do my laundry, including the folding and putting away part, I'll just have to waste my time...sadness. ;)
Ok, so this only works for us in theory because after a while, I would get tired of that massive pile of clothes getting in my way and mingling with our dirty clothes that inevitably never make it into the hamper. Not to mention that while I'm not what you'd call a neat freak, I prefer smooth clothes over wrinkly any day. So, until Steve makes enough money to hire someone to do my laundry, including the folding and putting away part, I'll just have to waste my time...sadness. ;)
May 9, 2009
all done
So 4 and 1/2 months of training have come to an end: I raced the 5K at the Riverbank Run today. Let me recap a bit of my morning for you:
I left right when I thought I should to get to Elaine's house in time to carpool and have plenty of time before the 7:30 start of my race (hers started at 8). I forgot construction and ended up being 5 minutes late!
So we got a late start but figured we were still doing okay timewise...wrong! We were going to exit at Ottawa Ave. to get to our parking spot but there was a LOOOOONNNNNGGG line of traffic waiting to exit there, so we continued on thinking we'd take the next exit, College Ave. Wrong again: College is closed for construction and the detour sends you on down the road to Fuller, where we exited and headed on our way back to Michigan Ave. By the time we parked and walked back down to Ottawa Ave. and DeVos Place, the loudspeakers were announcing 5 minutes until the start of the 5K!!!!! I hurried and picked up my packet with my bib and time chip in it, and Elaine was amazing and put the chip on my shoe while I pinned on my bib. I made it to the starting line with 3 minutes to spare, only to get caught up in the 12-minute-mile group.
Needless to say, I started the race pretty much at the back of the pack and spent the whole 3.2 miles trying to play catch-up. My chip time will most likely be at least 4 minutes faster than my start-to-finish time but I feel confident that I ran a strong race. I'll probably update later tonite with my times and place, but for now I'm okay with a 34 minute 5K (start-to-finish).
Elaine ran the 10K and ended up running pretty much the whole thing in the rain, but she finished strong and we decided next year we're running the same race. It just wasn't the same without our running buddy there to encourage us when the going got tough!!!!
All in all it was a good experience, and we're setting our sights higher for next year: 25K here we come!!!
EDIT:
I just checked my race results, and instead of shaving time like I had hoped, I ended up running it a couple minutes slower!!! My chip time was 32:06, clock time was 36:14. I had wanted to shave time rather than add it, but I felt more confident about my run today. I don't get it...
I left right when I thought I should to get to Elaine's house in time to carpool and have plenty of time before the 7:30 start of my race (hers started at 8). I forgot construction and ended up being 5 minutes late!
So we got a late start but figured we were still doing okay timewise...wrong! We were going to exit at Ottawa Ave. to get to our parking spot but there was a LOOOOONNNNNGGG line of traffic waiting to exit there, so we continued on thinking we'd take the next exit, College Ave. Wrong again: College is closed for construction and the detour sends you on down the road to Fuller, where we exited and headed on our way back to Michigan Ave. By the time we parked and walked back down to Ottawa Ave. and DeVos Place, the loudspeakers were announcing 5 minutes until the start of the 5K!!!!! I hurried and picked up my packet with my bib and time chip in it, and Elaine was amazing and put the chip on my shoe while I pinned on my bib. I made it to the starting line with 3 minutes to spare, only to get caught up in the 12-minute-mile group.
Needless to say, I started the race pretty much at the back of the pack and spent the whole 3.2 miles trying to play catch-up. My chip time will most likely be at least 4 minutes faster than my start-to-finish time but I feel confident that I ran a strong race. I'll probably update later tonite with my times and place, but for now I'm okay with a 34 minute 5K (start-to-finish).
Elaine ran the 10K and ended up running pretty much the whole thing in the rain, but she finished strong and we decided next year we're running the same race. It just wasn't the same without our running buddy there to encourage us when the going got tough!!!!
All in all it was a good experience, and we're setting our sights higher for next year: 25K here we come!!!
EDIT:
I just checked my race results, and instead of shaving time like I had hoped, I ended up running it a couple minutes slower!!! My chip time was 32:06, clock time was 36:14. I had wanted to shave time rather than add it, but I felt more confident about my run today. I don't get it...
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