2011 Christmas Program

Penny had her Christmas program/recital at gymnastics on Sunday afternoon. I am posting a video for any relatives who want to see. Even though I cut a lot out, it is still a long-ish video. She did so great! See if you can spot her flashing Tray a thumbs-up at the end. I was worried she'd be shy and back out, but except for looking for us a couple times there at the very beginning, she seemed to be fine. We are so proud of her!

Future Foodie?

Turns out I didn't do so well with the posting all month thing.
Anyway. We had a very nice Thanksgiving. We spent the day of at Tray's parents' house, and then had another dinner on Saturday at my mom and grandmother's. We have/had lots of leftovers from both places. Penny surprised me by correctly identifying the house of origin for each leftover when served each thing. The first evening we ate a plate full of things from Melba's dinner. Penny said this came from Georgia. I was a little surprised because we'd had pretty much the same things at my mom's, but not too surprised because I figured there must be enough difference to tell it all apart. But then, I made chipped ham in a white sauce (aka Ham SOS) for supper last night using ham from my mom's. We had ham from both houses. But she said, this came from Nana's. How did she distinguish the ham? It tasted the same to me. And anyway it was covered in sauce. Hmm. I think this calls for some future food experiments. :)

November 14: Penny's Perspective

"My Family" by Penny Earnest

Ok, so we'll just ignore the fact that I forgot to post yesterday on the 13th. We'll just consider that like some buildings that don't have 13th floors. (And I always want to say to those building operators, "It's a NUMBER." But whatever.) 

I promised to post some pictures taken by Penny. I have a mint ton of them. For her birthday this year we got her a Kidizoom camera. From the moment she opened it, she has loved it. She took over a hundred photos in just that few minutes after getting it. She kept taking everyone's picture individually and then she'd take pictures of whatever she found interesting: the corner of a piece of paper, the "i" in the word Dictionary, the bathroom faucet. These pictures are so cool, because they give us a glimpse into how she sees the world. The ones that get me the most are those of us taken from her perspective looking up at us. Unfortunately, the Kidizoom is a crap camera (and it has some of the best reviews of the "kid" cameras out there). You have to hold it absolutely still for two seconds after you take the photo or it will be blurry. So, almost all of her photos are blurry. She does great with our "real" camera, but we are obviously scared she'll damage it somehow. She hasn't dropped it yet though. So, we're thinking that for Christmas we are going to get her a $50 real digital camera. And then she can take 20 different photos of the cover of her Lightening McQueen coloring book, and they'll all be in focus. :)

November 12: On Demand

Penny and I love to go to the public library and check out new books to read. We recently discovered the Pigeon books, like "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus." I love to read them because the artwork is hilarious and the comedy is all in the vocal delivery. Anyway, the one called "The Pigeon Wants a Puppy" has a wish list on the inside front cover. One of the items on his list is "french fries on demand." Penny loves to quote the pigeon books all the time. And one of the things that has caught her imagination is the phrase "on demand." If you hand her something she'll go, "pepper. on demand," or "water. on demand." She'll get on a whole "on demand" riff walking through the house just calling out stuff. I think it's so funny.

November 11: Veteran's Day

I have many veterans in my life (and one or two still serving). They didn't have to serve, but they did. And I just want them to know how grateful I am to them for making that choice. Happy Veteran's Day.

November 10: Blah, Sick.

Tray has been sick with a cold since last Wednesday. I've been trying to avoid catching his cold, and so far neither Penny nor I have caught it. However, on Tuesday I tried to go swim like normal, and just could not seem to get going. I probably swam half of what I normally do, and in shorter intervals. I chalked it up to poor nutrition that day, and the after effects of having gone running with a (much faster) friend on Monday. She and I were supposed to meet up yesterday to swim after work/classes. Well, I woke up yesterday morning with that distinctive "cold-coming-on" feeling of sore throat and achy legs that I always get with a cold. I stopped by Walgreens on the way to work and took some cold medicine and some tylenol and hoped I'd feel better in time for our swim. By the time I got done with my class that afternoon I was really feeling the sore throat and decided to call things off. When I got home, I took my temperature. Fever? Check. I looked in the mirror at my throat and immediately sat down and googled images of strep throat. My throat looked exactly like strep. So, I went to the doctor this morning. The nurse said, "It's strep." The doctor said, "It's strep." The strep test said, "It's not strep." So I was sent home with a diagnosis of viral tonsillitis. And all I could think was, "here we go again." Back in 1999 I had three bouts of this back to back and the last one put me in the hospital for almost 4 days. Here's hoping I wake up tomorrow feeling better. And that I don't actually have strep despite the test that I am now spreading throughout the household. Ugh.

November 9: Resolutions 2 Months Early

Or maybe not. I've got a Wiccan friend who posted "Happy New Year" to her facebook on Halloween, so I guess New Years Resolutions could be in order now depending on your personal calendar - lol!

Seriously though, I had to fill out my professional goals for the 2012 year for human resources recently. It got me thinking along those lines in other aspects of my life. I've never really done New Years Resolutions much because for whatever reason I always thought of those as "negative" resolutions - like you were supposed to resolve to give up something or not do something. And it always seemed that people were choosing something very broad like "weight-loss," or "save more money," or "stop smoking," or something similar without any associated ideas about how to go about those things. But, the form at work was different. It required you to pick achievable (and specific) goals for each of the three areas: teaching, research, and service. And then at the end of the year you have to fill out another form explaining how you did or did not achieve those goals. It's a better system than me sitting there going, "I'm going to get more research done this year" (the standard new year's resolution style of things). Instead, I have to say exactly what I am going to do this year - publish this or that article, attend this or that conference.

Put another way, I am henceforth viewing New Years Resolutions as yearly "bucket lists" of things I want to get done during that year. I'm still working all the categories out, but thus far my fitness goals are the most clearly defined. They were not until just a day or two ago when I found out about a 15K race in Dothan in January (that's about 9 miles). There's a half marathon in Bainbridge in April, so that 9 mile distance would be a good intermediate distance between 6.2 miles and the 13.1 miles for the half. So, for 2011, I achieved my base goal of running in a 5k (3.1 miles) race. My goal for the rest of 2011 is to run a 10k in December (I've run 5 miles a couple times now, so I have to add another mile between now and December). Then my 2012 goals are the 15k at the end of January, and the half in April.
I'm not far off of swimming a mile in the pool, so achieving that before the new year is another 2011 goal.
My swim goals for 2012 are still nebulous, but so far include swimming in a swim meet. Any swim meet. I just have no idea how to go about that one.
I still very much want to do a sprint triathlon (1/4 mi swim, 12-20mi bike (depending on race), and 3.1 mi run). All very doable on their own, but put together I don't know. Plus, I still need a bike! It feels good to have goals though, and accountability for those goals, which is what this post is all about. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.