The Costumes

I wrote about the costumes I made for some coworker's children. One of the girls sent me some pictures of her daughter in the costume, so I thought I'd post them. This is Kiera in her grim reaper costume. She absolutely hated it, but her mom forced her into it and eventually she came around. I wasn't too offended since she hated the care bear costume she had too.

There is a hood on the costume as well, but she would not let it go up. I think she looks absolutely hilarious in the costume. Her mom made her the scythe to do with it. The costume got really mixed reviews though. A lot of people thought it was awesome, but a lot of others didn't seem to care for it (mostly the older generations). Apparently little girls are supposed to dress and fairies and princesses, not grim reapers.  I'll add a picture of the costume laid out as well so you can see the hood.

The other girl never gave me any picture of her son in his costume, so I'll just have to post the photo I took. Apparently he was scared of the costume too at first, but then once he got it on he loved it . I had to make both costumes without patterns, but in the end I think they turned out pretty well.

The 5k

I wrote some about my stupid foot and how I might not be able to run in any of the races like I'd planned.  Well this weekend was race weekend, and I was able to run in the 5k. I wanted to do the 10k, but I wasn't confident enough that my foot would behave, and still could use a little more training.

The entry fee was $40, but I won this "lottery" thing at work that reimbursed my fee. Mayo was one of the main sponsors for the race so they were given 6 entry fee reimbursements to divvy out. I was one of the lucky winners!

The race was at 4pm yesterday. It was a little chilly out, but it was still pretty good weather for running. There were about 500 people in the race. My official "chip time" was 27:30 which is the actual time it took to cross the starting line and cross the finish line. The "gun time" was 28:03, but I ignore that one because it was a huge cluster of 500 people trying to run through a starting chute that was about 15 feet across. I think overall I came in 176 of 501 based on the chip time and 75 of 312 or so for the females. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I'm looking forward to running another race in the future. I am also hoping to run a 10k in the future. I bought some good running shoes so hopefully that will help my foot issues and make it all more possible.

Two friends came to cheer me on. They made me signs and greeted me at the finish line. This is Alli and me after the race. She calls me Rollie Pollie. Erin wrote my nickname wrong on the sign, but I was too thrilled to have a cheering section to notice. Today was the Marathon and half Marathon. I went with Erin to cheer on some of the runners. All the little kids cheering me on yesterday made me think that it was worth devoting some time to encouraging the people running the big race. 

Running. Part 2?

So here is the update on the running situation. I ended up signing up for the 5k in the Mankato Marathon. I've been running about half as much as I was before my foot started bothering me. I have plantar faciitis. It's a lot better than it was when it first starting hurting, but I still can't run as much as I'd like. I ran 3.5 miles and at the very end my foot started to hurt. A couple days later I ran 5.5 and it was fine the whole time. A couple days after that I ran 3.5 and it hurt again. Then I ran 2.5 and it really hurt. Today I ran 3.5 and it was basically ok. I haven't figured out exactly if there is something in particular that makes it hurt during the run. I've run different routes with different shoes at different times with different amounts of rest time between the runs. I can't find any correlation, so I think I just need to keep doing the stretches the doc told me to do and take it easy. But I figured since I can run the distance, I might as well sign up for the 5k. Come cheer me on if you want. I don't anticipate finishing with any impressive time. I'm just doing it for fun. But a cheer squad would be neat.

In other news, my motorcycle is presenting me with another opportunity to learn how to fix something. A couple days ago my odometer and speedometer stopped working. I've done a little research, but haven't been able to pinpoint exactly what I will need to fix/replace to make it work again. In the meantime I don't really want to ride it because I want to keep the mileage on the odometer accurate. I'm not too worried about the speed limit stuff since I could just follow traffic and use the tachometer as a reference, but I'd really prefer to keep the mileage accurate for when I sell the bike and don't want to feel like I'm lying about how many miles are on it. Hopefully I can figure it out how to fix it without too much hassle or cost.

Food and Running

Recently I've been on a kick where I have actually been making my self some real meals. I kind of got lazy when I moved into my new place and didn't have a kitchen for a couple weeks. I had to make microwavable meals and sandwiches for a couple weeks and I just sort of stayed there. This past week I started making big kids meals. It's been kind of nice, but except for the part where I eat the same things for three days because I haven't figured out how to cook for one yet.

I started with and Asian cashew chicken sort of meal. Basically I just cooked some chicken, added garlic, cashews, carrots, broccoli, green pepper, soy sauce, and teryaki sauce. Add some rice and an egg roll on the side. I made this a week later for a couple friends because it was so yummy.

Then I made something along the lines of a Sante Fe chicken pasta. I got this lawry's marinade which is where the Santa Fe part comes in. Pasta sauce, tomatoes, penne noodles, garlic, crushed red peppers, and Parmesan cheese.

Then I made some goulash which I think is relatively self explainable.  Today I made some corn pancakes. I got the recipe for this from a cooking magazine (the rest were all just random stuff I threw together myself). It basically consisted of flour, corn, corn meal, milk, and eggs. They were a little weird, but not bad. The original recipe called for salmon to go on top, but I didn't want to pay that much and I don't like sea food. They could have done with some sort of meat though. Just plain corn pancakes were a little boring.... also, I'm not sure why this stupid picture won't face the right direction.

In other news, I was thinking about signing up to run either the 5k or the 10k OR BOTH for the Mankato Marathon weekend thing. Unfortunately my foot is being ridiculous and stupid and painful, so I'm not sure what my running abilities will be like this next few days/weeks/(god forbid) months. I'm hoping it's a fluke thing that will magically feel better tomorrow, but I'm not super optimist about it. I bought some gel inserts and have been taking ibuprofen for anti-inflammatory purposes, and have been icing and massaging it a lot. The past month or so I've been pretty consistently running 3.5 miles 5-6 times a week. I ran 5 miles yesterday and never had any problems with my foot/heel hurting. Then I got up after watching some TV several hours after the run and my heel throbbed with every step. Hopefully a couple more days of rest, icing, and massage will cure it. Because dammit, I want to run those races.

Fixing Things

Last week I took my motorcycle for a cruise. On the way home, just as I was getting off 169, the throttle cable snapped. I couldn't give my bike any gas an I had to coast to a stop about 3/10ths of a mile from my apartment. I ended up having to push the bike home because I was on a busy street with no parking. It was rather tiring, but at least it didn't happen when I was miles from home.

I ordered a new cable and got it today. I was able to replace it on my own in about an hour. The part was only $18, so overall it was a pretty easy fix. I've had some experience messing with the cable because I had to remove it from the carbs last winter when I took them off, so that helped a lot. I think the most time consuming part was draining the gas so I could raise the tank to access the area I needed.

About a month ago my Ipod died on me. I decided to attempt to fix that myself too. It didn't go quite as well. Based on some research I did, it seemed like I just would need to replace the battery. I ordered a new one for less than $5, but realized that in order to swap it out I would need to desolder the old one and solder the new on in it's place. So I had to buy a soldering iron and desoldering braid which cost $15. In the process of disassembling it, I broke the cable for the click wheel and had to order a new on of those which cost $4.

Once I finally got all the pieces I needed and put everything back together, the click wheel seems to still be broken, and the battery is doing the same thing as before--says it's charged, but doesn't actually hold a charge. I'll probably tinker with it a bit more, but I'm starting to think it's a lost cause. It sucked at first getting used to running without music, but I've gotten pretty used to it now. I think I'd still like to replace the ipod, but I'm not 100% sure yet when I will and what I'll replace it with. I don't really like the new ipod nano style, but don't know if I want to spring for a touch or classic. It sucks that I wasn't able to fix it on my own, but I had fun learning how it works and goes together. And who knows, maybe there is just one small wire loose that I'll find when I mess with it a little more.

The Fam

This Friday I went golfing with my uncle Scott. I had a really fun time hanging out with him and I golfed really well considering how long it had been since I'd played. Afterwards we went out to eat at the Olive Garden and I had this magnificent breaded eggplant with spaghetti. I'm also playing a round with my aunt Mandy in Fairmont this week. I'm hoping I hit as well then as I did on Friday.

On Saturday I went to the wedding of a friend from work with some other people from work. It was in Winona so we had a bit of a drive to get there.  The wedding was outside, and despite raining beforehand, it turned out to be a great day for it.  We stayed for the reception, but headed back early since we had a 2.5 hour drive home.

On Sunday I headed down to Fairmont to help celebrate my dad and Annette's 10 year anniversary and to see my grandparents. They live in the Quad Cities in Iowa so I don't get to see them very often.

I rode my motorcycle down and we grilled burgers and brats and ate on the deck. We spent the afternoon catching up on each others' lives and took the boat out on the lake. We stayed out until nearly 7, so when we got back to my dad's house I had to stuff my face with supper and head back up to Mankato so I wouldn't have to ride in the dark. The ride home was fantastic. All in all I was one of the best weekends I've had so far this summer.

My Very First Parking Ticket

I rode my motorcycle to work on Wednesday and since it was supposed to be nice on Thursday I just parked it in the street so I could ride it to work the next day.

The on Thursday when I went out to start it........nothing. The motor wouldn't turn over, the starter solenoid wouldn't click. I had no clue what the problem was since it was perfectly fine the night before. I was parked in front of my place which has 2 hour parking from 8-5 pm, but I didn't have time to move my bike and wasn't sure if I could even move it on my own since I had a ways to push it and it weighs 5 times more than I do.

So I had to leave it there and go to work. I took a long lunch and went back home to try to move it. When I got there I had a parking ticket, which I was expecting but which still annoyed me. It was only for $15 at least. I tried to start the bike again and this time it at least clicked and the RPMs jumped up (without the engine trying to turn over). I worked up all my strength and was able to get it moved to a non-restricted parking area without tipping it over.

I talked to a few people to get ideas about what the issue might be and was thinking it might be the starter motor which would cost me $200 to get a new one not including work to change it out. When I went out to work on my bike later that night this random guy that lives at my place came up to me and said the tail light and license plate light were on all night. This completely baffled me because the key was out and there isn't a switch like on a car that can accidentally be left on.

After some research I learned what had happened. My bike has a feature where if you turn the handle bars all the way to the left and then turn the key to the left the handle bars will lock to prevent theft. I use this when I park on the street just to be safe. However, if you turn the handlebars to the left and the key to the left but not 100% to the left the handlebars still lock, but the rear lights also stay on. I have no idea why a person would ever need this feature, but that's what happened. I didn't notice the lights on since it was 5 pm when i parked. The lights drained the battery overnight so it wouldn't start. Throughout the day the battery built back up enough of a charge to engage the solenoid, but not to start it. I jumped the motorcycle with my car and drove it back to my parking stall. At some point I'll either have to ride it to charge the battery or pull it out and charge it with a regular charger.

I was relieved that it turned out to just me that battery, but was was a little annoyed that somehow it took three years to learn about this mysterious feature on my bike. Oh well. A $15 ticket is much preferred to a $250 repair job.