Oh my!

How can it be over a week since I last posted?

Well, I'll use this post to try to answer that and name 7 more random things about me since I was tagged by Aron.

1. Three friends and I recently hosted a Hawaiian luau for our tri club. It was the first party for friends (not family) that I have planned in something like 15 years. Have I mentioned that I'm really an introvert?

2. Dave & I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary the same weekend as the luau. Still hard to believe I found someone who's willing to put up with me for so long.



3. Words with "rl" in them are virtually impossible for native Japanese speakers like my parents to pronounce correctly. I have no idea why they named me Shirley.

4. Contrary to what you might think, I LOVE to sleep. I can sleep for 8-10 hours straight at night and take 2-3 hour long naps, no problem. Last week when I started feeling under the weather, I was sleeping way more than I was awake, not by choice though.

5. After my third marathon (Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage, AK), Dave and I took a glacier cruise where there were some other folks who'd done the race including the first 50-stater I'd ever met. I remember initially thinking that he must be nuts.

6. If I ever won the lottery, I might consider buying a summer home in Wyoming or Colorado. Very beautiful out here and I think I prefer high altitude to high heat & humidity. Or is it the grass just looks greener from the other side?

Casper Marathon race time: 3:56:34, my fastest at 5000+ ft.
(Equiv. to a 3:44 at sea level per Daniel's Running Calculator :-)

7. I wish I knew a way to read blogs and write comments offline like folks can read and reply to email offline using Eudora or Outlook. If anyone knows of an application that will allow me to do this on a Mac, please do tell. I often end up just sleeping on planes ...

I'll be catching up on my blog reading soon after I get back!

Tag, Tag, Tag!

OK, I was tagged awhile back by folks and need to come clean. The first one was from Leana. Answer the following questions with one word answers:

1. Where is your cell phone? Bookshelf.
2. Your hair? Thick.
3. Your mother? Japanese.
4. Your father? Hardworking.
5. Your favourite food? Salmon.
6. Your dream last night? Weird.
7. Your favourite drink? Coffee
8. Your dream/goal? Kona.
9. What room are you in? Breakfast.
10. Your hobby? Blogging.
11. Your fear? Injury.
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Hawaii.
13. Where were you last night? Home.
14. Something you aren't? Tall.
15. Muffins? OK.
16. Wish list item? Empty!
17. Where did you grow up? California.
18. Last thing you did? Emailed.
19. What are you wearing? Ponytail.
20. Your TV? Off.
21. Your pets? Fish.
22. Your friends? Few.
23. Your life? Good.
24. Your mood? Even.
25. Missing someone? No.
26. Vehicle? Mazda.
27. Something you're not wearing? Shoes.
28. Your favourite store? TrackShack*
29. Your favourite color? Teal.
30. When was the last time you laughed? Morning.
31. Last time you cried? October?
32. Your best friend? Hubby.
33. One place that I go over and over? Y.
34. One person who emails me regularly? Dave.
35. Favourite place to eat? Home.
*Not really much of a shopper but I love working there!

The second one was from Maria. Name 10 Things That Make You Happy (I'm choosing to list things that don't happen everyday):

1. New running shoes.
2. Getting back to the pool after a hiatus. But NOT seeing how slow I've become!
3. A firm bike tire before heading out on a bike ride.
4. Having Dave home during the week. He usually travels a lot for work but is actually home this week - YAY!
5. Sleeping in on weekends.
6. Helping/supporting friends and fellow athletes.
7. Seeing "0 new items" in my Google Reader.
8. Coloring in a state on my 50 states marathon map.
9. Hearing the flight attendant say "Welcome to Kona."
10. Getting a $300 airline voucher to be voluntarily bumped from a $10 award flight. This happened last trip!

The third one I tagged myself to Name 10 Specific Goals for 2010:

1. Finish my 50 states marathon quest. (8 7 more marathons to run)
2. Run my first-ever 10K, ideally 46:00 (7:24 pace) or better.
3. PR in a half iron tri, ideally 5:40 or better.
4. Swim 100 yds in a pool in less than 1:40. Fastest to date: 1:43.
5. Work out with more people. (Except cycling with Dave on weekends, I trained alone for the most part last year. This year I want to do things differently.)
6. Help out at a minimum of 10 local races. (Should be easier since I'm not training for an iron tri and having to go so long on weekends; 2 so far)
7. Stretching and/or foam rolling at least 2x a week.
8. Help Dave get down to 200#.
9. Read one book. Eek, NONE last year!!! **
10. Play 2 piano pieces I used to be able to play well. Can I even still read music?!?
**Parts of Trizophrenia or other books I read don't count. Must be a whole book.

Not sure who has done these tags already or not but if you haven't and want to play, consider yourself tagged. I think the second and third ones, in particular, are a great way to kick off 2010, even in February ;-)

Tag About Threes

Saw this fun tag on Wendy's blog. I am not going to tag anyone either but if you want to do it, consider yourself tagged!

Three names I go by:
1. Shirley
2. ShirleyPerly
3. Muffin (Dave's nickname for me)

Three jobs I have had in my life:
1. Computer consultant (now)
2. Oceanographer/Computer Scientist (out of college)
3. Waitress (first-ever job)

Three places I have lived:
1. Orlando, FL (where I am most of the time)
2. La Jolla, CA (where I attended grad school)
3. Richmond, CA (where I grew up)

Three favorite drinks:
1. Coffee (usually only in the mornings)
2. Diet cola (not picky about brand)
3. POM Wonderful pomegranate juice*

Three TV shows that I watch right now:
NONE - I don't have time to watch TV! (no cable either)

Three places I have been recently:
1. Kailua Kona, HI (June-July)
2. San Diego, CA (June)
3. Fargo, ND (May)

Three people who e-mail me regularly:
1. Hubby Dave
2. Coach Bill
3. Karen (work associate)

Three of my favorite foods:
1. Grilled salmon (a rare treat, maybe 2-3 times a year)
2. Strawberries (an occasional treat a few times a year)
3. Jalapeno bagels (when I fly through Chicago-ORD)

Three things I'm looking forward to:
1. Moving to Hawaii full-time
2. Being able to swim 100 yards in 1:30
3. Doing a race with my grandkids (when I have some and they're old enough)

*I got some samples of POM Wonderful recently -- WOW! I really like the taste of it (kind of a tart grape-cranberry flavor to me) and it's loaded with anti-oxidants, great for me because even though I eat a lot of fruits & veggies, I know I don't eat much foods high in antioxidants. And I know I should but I'm a LAZY eater who's content to eat the same ol' foods unless a change is obviously needed (say, I'm getting sick or feeling weak). This makes it easy, though. Thanks POM!

_________________________

Workout-wise, another tough weekend but I nailed my nutrition and all went well:

Fri - 3000 yd swim (3x1000, new 1000 yd swim PR of 19:41) + strength training
Sat - 12 mi run (11am, 91-93 deg HI, 9:46 pace, neg split, AHR 151 - low Z2)
Sun - 70 mi bike (17.5 mph, 81-96 deg HI, flat course, low wind, neg split, AHR 140 - hi Z1)
      + 8 mi run (noon, 96-94 deg HI, 9:16 pace**, neg split, AHR 157 - Z2)
**About 30 sec faster than my iron marathon goal pace (see blue box to the right) but felt great and was trying to beat a thunderstorm that was moving in.

I'm not sure why Coach scheduled this week's long brick workout the day after the long run but it was a nice change and I'm not gonna complain :-)  I will talk more about my nutrition in an upcoming post. That and dealing with the heat are probably the two biggest challenges in my iron quest this year.

6-Point Meme

Well, it's been a while since I've been tagged but TinaGirl finally caught me. And it's about time I wrote a new post so here we go, 6 more random facts about me:

1. Without contacts or glasses, I'm blind (seriously, my vision is something like 20/600+ in both eyes). One of the many reasons why I didn't swim much when I was younger is because I didn't know about swim goggles.

2. My husband says he's never seen someone so little snore so loud. Maybe that's why all his jobs seem to involve so much travel?

3. The hardest thing about teaching for me was remembering student's names. In fact, I can forget a person's name almost immediately after meeting them. (OTOH, if their names were numbers, things would be different).

4. I look forward to crossing the finish line of a race someday with my grandkids. I want a race shirt that says "Grand Mama Jama" written on it.

5. Recently I've been thinking it wouldn't be all that bad to have a boring part-time job that allowed me to read/write blogs and surf the Internet to look busy.

6. Nowadays I rarely drive more than 5mph above the posted speed limit. But today, in Idaho, apparently I'd missed seeing a sign that dropped the speed limit from 50 to 40mph. Damn.

And like many others, I'm not tagging specific people but if you wanna play or have got nothing else to write about, consider yourself tagged!

Tagged Twice

Man, both PlanetT3rry and Jade Lady have tagged me! I need to work on getting harder to catch ;-)

OK, here are 7 more random/weird things about myself. I'm not tagging anyone else this time since nearly everyone seems to have been tagged recently already. If you wanna play, consider yourself tagged.

1. I remember countless useful numbers largely by muscle memory, e.g., how my fingers move on a keyboard, the same way I remembered music when playing piano.

2. On average, I watch probably no more than an hour of TV shows a week. For many years, I never even plugged my TV in.

3. It took me nearly 2 years to get used to the idea of having a cell phone. If I remembered to bring it, I often forgot I had one and wondered whose phone was ringing. Doh!

4. Despite being a math major in college and a Type-A person, I find it a chore to keep track of my workouts and have little desire to analyze day-to-day performance data.

5. The heaviest I've ever weighed is 130# C&S (clothes & shoes on) at a doctor's office. At my 1/2 iron events, I've weighed in at 120-125# C&S. I can fluctuate +/- 5# pretty easily and don't usually weigh myself at home unless I feel unwell.

6. I've never eaten a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

7. The only diapers I've ever changed are those of my dad when he was dying of cancer. He passed away at age 64 and perhaps the most valuable lesson he ever taught me was that life is short.

Happy Leap Day Everyone!!

PS - Today is the last day to vote for one of the 4 final contestants in the Evotri contest. If you haven't yet done so, please vote by 11:59pm PST.

Ho Ho Ho! A Christmas Meme

Growing up in a Buddhist family, Christmas was something we celebrated just to go along with everyone else. My parents put up a tree and decorations and wrapped gifts for us when we were little, but by the time we were teenagers, we were often just given cash to buy our own gifts (less work, less fuss, wrapping optional). And as we got older, the tree and decorations came out less and less.

Then I married Dave, who used to have "BAH HUMBUG" strung across his office doorway at Xmas. I decided I'd better take charge before it became just another day!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bag? Neither, most of our gifts are shipped/given directly unwrapped (but usually in a box or envelope) or sent via email.
2. Real tree or artificial? N/A
3. When do you put up your tree? N/A
4. When do you take down your tree? N/A
5. Do you like eggnog? Nope. Eggs, milk and me don't mix.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Not sure, but I remember having a blast playing with a Hot Wheels set one Xmas. Or was it my brother's?
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Not that I know of.
8. Hardest person to buy for? No one. Everyone we know loves gift cards.
9. Easiest person to buy for? Moi :-)
10. Worst Christmas gift you've ever received? I once got a coconut bra and grass skirt at a Secret Santa gift exchange. At the time, it seemed pretty useless.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. It's tradition.
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Die Hard. Yes, it qualifies. Yippy-ki-yay!
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever the right gift comes to mind but usually when I have a deadline to meet.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Recycling is good.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Sees Candy if I'm lucky to get any.
16. White or colored lights? N/A
17. Favorite Christmas song? Snoopy's Theme. It's not really a Xmas song but it reminds me of the Peanuts show I used to watch as a kid around Xmas.
18. Traveling for Christmas or stay home? Usually we travel and often to get out of having to go elsewhere.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Umm ...
20. Angel or Star on top of tree? N/A
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? People getting stressed over it.
23. What I love most about Christmas? Dave takes some time off from work.

And to keep things mellow, I'm not tagging anyone else but feel free to do one if you want. That's what I did :-)

PS - The poll below will stay open until I figure out how to close it.

Meme, Say What???

Lisa, who recently completed her first marathon and is an awesome graphics designer, tagged me to do a meme.

What's that, you say?

As near as I can tell, it's a fun chain-letter like way of getting to know others better and making new friends. But don't ask me why they call it a meme.

Fortunately, this one does not ask you to provide as much details about yourself as I've seen on some blogs. Here are the basic rules for this meme (cutting and pasting from Lisa's blog):

• Link to your tagger, and post these rules on your blog.
• Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
• Tag 5 people at the end of your post by their names and links to their blogs.
• Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

My 5 facts:

1. Orlando is the furthest inland I've ever lived for any length of time (about an hour from the Atlantic Ocean). Other places include the S.F. Bay Area, San Diego and Monterey, CA.

2. I have a masters degree in Oceanography but am very prone to motion/sea sickness and until very recently did not even like swimming. I was into the physics and computer modeling side of things.

3. I used to play piano competitively until I was 16 (started around age 7) and enjoy dabbling in drawing, painting and computer graphics (photo above: my electric piano, painted wine glass, fish and flower murals, tri t-shirt graphic). There just never seems to be enough time to do all my hobbies.

4. My wedding was pretty weird. Dave and I got married on top of the Naval Postgraduate School building where we met and both worked. I selected the music: Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries as the processional and Star War's The Throne Room as the recessional. Dave made our wedding cake.

5. I was a 2004 Balance Bar Grant recipient and appeared in the May 2005 issue of Runner's World for my crazy 21 Run Salute campaign in which I ran 21 marathons in 9 months to raise $21K for families of fallen service members and to support our troops. Now I'm just a slacker (but keeping it fun). Added: Fundraising is one of the hardest things I've ever done!

Lastly, I'm tagging the following five fantastic females:

MarathonChris - marathoner and master of juggling 20 things at once!
Christina - my cute little niece who's always on the go!
Molly - a fleet-footed, four-footed female with her own blog!
Petra - marathoner and an Alicia Silverstone look-a-like!
Bree - super mom and a sub-10 2007 Kona Ironman finisher!

GO GIRLS!!!