Lookie Lookie

Look what was waiting on me when I got home from CERN:

Howard and I had been talking about getting a treadmill, and while I was away, he went out and got one!

The only downside to the treadmill is that I can’t run with Oliver.  He gets a sad look on his face when I put on my shoes but not his leash.  But then he goes back to sleep.  It is hot, and the laziness level in this house has been pushed to the max:

 

Happy New Year

Yes, I know I have been extremely delinquent in posting lately.  I’ve been assuming that y’all aren’t really interested in posts that say “I’m tired of my thesis” over and over again, and that is more or less all I’ve had to say.  But I hope that everybody out there had a happy new year.  Ours was unusually festive –  Howard and I normally spend New Year’s Eve doing rather lame things like watching PBS specials or playing Trivial Pursuit, but this year we actually went to a party, and it was actually a fun party.  It included a cute dog and several cute cats; animals always make a party more interesting — if things get boring, or you get stuck talking to some insane drunk person, you can just turn your attention to a pet.

In other extremely exciting news, Howard booked a vacation for the two of us to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands for late February.  I have been saying for years that I want to go to Aruba after my PhD, but when we started doing research on Caribbean islands, St. Croix seemed like a better fit for us.    So I am really, really, really looking forward to that.

And in yet more news, I’ve made a sort of strange resolution this year.   It’s more of  a January resolution — I resolved to run at least a mile every day of the month leading up to my thesis defense on January 29th.  I’ve been a little lax on my running lately, only doing it 2-3 times a week, which is not really enough to deal with all the thesis-related stress.  Normally I run 2-3 miles, so dragging myself out to do a mile is not too bad, even when I’m feeling pretty crappy.  I’m five days into it, and it’s going pretty well.  Yesterday was a little rough — the gym was closed, it was 16 degrees and icy outside, and I had a champagne hangover, but Oliver and I still made it through slightly more than a mile, so I figure if we can make it though that, the rest of the month should be easy.

Well, there is something of an update anyway.  Have a Happy New Year!!!!

 

Bad Kitty

Last night, I went to bed early because I felt like I was getting a cold, and I have way, way, way too much work to do to be sick.  Around 6 am, I was awoken when a lamp, a nightstand and a pint of water all came crashing down on me.  The culprit was this one:

He looks pretty mild-mannered, no?  Apparently not.  Luckily, there was another bed already made in another bedroom, so we just took our sleepy selves there, to avoid our soaked bed.

Although it has nothing to do with Julius being a turd, and Howard has already mentioned it on his blog, our 5K running time was finally posted: 30:29.  That is just slightly better than a 10 minute/mile average, which is really good for me.  I am proud of us!

At the moment, I feel like crap and can’t imagine running 5K.  At least dissertation and paper-writing can be done at home while curled up with my cats (or at least with the one cat I’m still speaking to).

 

Updates From LauraLand

• I successfully finished my first 5K this past Saturday!  It started raining like mad right after we finished, so I left before they posted the times, and they aren’t online yet, but I’m confident that we very easily beat our wussy goal of 35 minutes.
• This is what I made the night before, and had for breakfast before the race:

• It is filled with the apples I picked a few weeks ago, and tasted even better than it looks!

• The issues I have been having with my data analysis have mostly been resolved, so I’m working very hard to finish up my thesis.  It is possible that come January you’ll have both a President Obama and a Dr. LauraBanana.  Keep your fingers crossed!
• Thesis page count: 128!

 

Race!

I seem to have made it through my 29th birthday, and I even got some good presents out of the deal.

But the exciting news is that today I signed up for my first ever race!  Howard and I are both going to run a 5k on October 25th. Deciding to do the race has done really good things for our motivation.  The day before my birthday, I increased my personal record for distance by running 4 miles.   Then today, Howard, Oliver and I ran 3.5 miles.  So we should be able to finish the 3.1 mile race easy… we just have to work on doing it at something better than a snail’s pace!

The event is a benefit for the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes, an organization that provides all sorts of free-of-charge support for cancer survivors who live in this region.  If you would like to show support for your favorite blond physicist and give to a really good cause, you can do so here.