Party On, Bardiac

The party continued this morning when I took some brownies to our departmental staff, and to the staff of another department. These folks are just great, the sorts of staff folks who make the whole community a better place.

And then I went for a bike ride to explore a bit with some friends. We found an overlook for a local dam (but I was walking my bike at that point, because my skinny tires just aren't made for off-roading). It was a fun ride. As long as I was just spinning on a near flat, it was great, but every time I hit even a slight upslope, my legs were complaining. We had a bit of a sprint near the end, and I hit 25.2. I think I'm going to play a bit more with the sprinting, because at this point I think my improvement is mostly just getting in the right gear to really stand up and power things up a bit, and that's just a bit of practice. (I think Mark Cavendish can rest easy, though.)

And then we had lunch. Yum!

And now I'm being lazy. I really need to go mow the back lawn, but just thinking about it makes my legs complain.

I dropped off the check for my birthday present beginning yoga classes!

And, I chatted with my sister in law, who is the best. All is good. I'm so lucky my sibling married someone wonderful.

Let the Party Begin!

I'm taking brownies to my biking group tonight, so I'm counting it as the official start of my birthday celebrating.

I'll take some brownies in to the office staff in my department (and another that always shares treats with me) tomorrow, so they can enjoy some, too.

I got the results from my lab work back, and it's mostly good. My blood sugar was within the high range of normal (ie. NOT in pre-diabetes range), so that's good. If I lose weight and work on not eating sugar, and keep exercising, I'm guessing I can keep it in the healthier range okay. I'm guessing the thing that helped this time around is that I've been exercising?

The cholesterol was good (though the hdl was not quite in the normal range), but the triglycerides were high. So I guess again, less sugar would be better. I hate worrying about health stuff. It seems like there must be a better balance between worrying and not and actually doing something (like losing weight) than I manage to achieve.

But for now, I'm going to party! Let the biking begin!

For my birthday present to myself, I'm going to take a beginning yoga class, and see how I like it. One of my friends who's already good at yoga is going to take it with me, partly to be supportive (which, wow, can I just say, what a good friend) and partly to look at how another instructor works with beginners. So I should enjoy it.

Lesson Learned

The other night, my internet went out. I did the usual turn on turn off stuff with the modem and computer, but had no luck. (The TV still worked, though.)

So in the morning, it wasn't going well again, so I called the cable company and the tech there walked me through trying to get it to work, and when it didn't, made an appointment for a tech to come to the house.

This morning the tech came, took one look at the little modem box, and said (in a kind chuckling sort of way) that he knew what was wrong. The "standby" button was pushed.

The only thing I can figure is that I was vaccuming in that area the other night and must have moved the modem and hit the (poorly positioned because way to easy to press accidentally) button.

That will teach me not to vaccuum!

Goals

I'm setting a couple biking goals. I've been biking inside during rain (and watching the tour) a bit, and outside. So I've tried some different stuff.

Sprint: my fastest sprint speed yesterday was 22.9 mph.
Goal: 23.5 mph. (Mark Cavendish goes upwards of 40mph.)

Sprint: my longest sprint interval yesterday was 45 seconds.
Goal: 1 minute.


Trainer: my fastest 10 miles is at 18 mph (with the lowest resistance setting)
Goal: 10 miles at 20 mph.

Computing Weirdness

NWU's IT folks just changed the system we use to read our email over the internet (at home or elsewhere off campus) about two weeks ago.

Ever since then, when I go to log in, it takes me to the log in page and I type in my information, and then about half the time, I get a screen that says it can't find that page.

If I go to another page, and then back to try to log in again, it usually logs me in just fine.

See, I tend to think that machinery should either work or not work. But this working sometimes thing is weird. I just don't get it.

But it's frustrating in that minorly frustrating way. It adds clicks before I get to see what I want to see. But that's it. It just adds clicks. It's not like the computer blows up and takes off my legs above the knees or anything (for which I AM grateful). So I feel a little silly calling the help line to ask about it.

I hate when the campus IT folks change stuff that works just fine because they're going to make it way better! It's like when Word decides to make every document Cambria with an extra space between paragraphs because some idiot thinks that's BETTER! Gah.

(I did call, and the computer guy had me clean out my whole browser thing and start fresh. But then the next time I tried the email, it did the same "can't load this page" thing. So I called again, and got a different guy, who said he couldn't help me but would tell the IT folks. I'm guessing there's a circular file somewhere with these sorts of complaints, eh?)

Kids These Days

I've been putting some seed up on the railings of my deck because several kinds of birds seem more comfortable eating there, especially when the fledglings are around.

I can see out to the railings, and it's very nice to watch what comes to feed.

A White-Breasted Nuthatch lands, just on one side of the little pile of seeds on the railing and begins to feed. A moment later, another lands, just on the other side of the little pile of seeds and immediately goes into the wing fluttering, crouching, and screaming behavior that baby birds use to get their parents to feed them.

I had to laugh. I imagine the adult (I presume) was sitting there thinking, "FEED YOURSELF!" And after a couple moments of unsuccessful begging, the juvenile (I presume) deigned to move its beak half an inch lower (if that) and actually pick up seed for itself.

A More Serious Dilemma

Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawk? (It's an immature and one or the other, but I'm confused.) And these are the best photos I got, even though they're not great.

Decisions

I went to my well woman visit thing last week, and the doctor strongly encouraged me to lose weight. Strongly. Or else bad things will happen at some point in the not so distant future.

I get really stressy about anything medical. Anything. So I make the appointment, and then I stress out for two months about it (It would be SO less stressful if you could get an appointment in less than two months!). I fret and worry and stress. And then it's not actually that bad, and I wonder why I get so stressy. (Weirdly, I don't stress at all about donating blood, or I simply wouldn't do it. I don't know why, but my blood pressure when I donate is about 20 points lower for the top number than when I go for the well woman check. They always have to check it twice, and it drops after a while to way less scary.)

I had to go have a blood lab thing yesterday, and the guy took one look at my arm and said he would use a really tiny needle. But I said that I give blood a lot (obvious from the line of scars) and that he should use whatever big honking needle they use for that, and it would be fine. And he looked doubtful, but he did, and indeed it was fine. Now I have to wait to see if bad things have already started to happen. And I'm a little stressy about that, too.

So, I need to lose weight. I just have to decide that I really want to enough to do without sugary stuff in a strict way, and I can. But boy, that's a hard decision for real. If I were all dramatic about it, I'd wave my arms and talk about quality of life. But it's just sugar, right? Mmmm, sugar.

So, on Sunday, I started being strict. And it's going okay. But I went out biking a bit yesterday, and my legs were sad. I biked the Cty C hill, out 8 miles and back(the hill part is about a mile long, and steep for me, but would barely count as a pimple in the landscape for the Tour men; after that it's a mildly rolly ride). And by the way back, my legs were sad. I've got to find a balance between being strict and eating food that works for biking.

About 10 years ago, I lost 25 pounds being very strict. And I've gained most of it back, mostly within the past year. :( So I know I can lose it, but I think I'm going to not be quite as strict (when I go out to dinner with friends, for example). I also exercise a whole lot more than I did 10 years ago, so hopefully I can balance things out.

I can't bring myself to think about how much I should aim to lose. :(

***I wrote that part earlier, and then went for my Wednesday group ride a bit ago. It's a slower ride and less hilly, but longer, and my legs were way better. I tried to make sure I had eaten a bit better and drank a lot of water. BUT, on a regular "work out" ride, my average heart rate is about 154 for the hour or hour and a half, and on this ride my average rate was 142. So I know I don't work nearly as hard on these rides. But they're fun rides and I like the group folks.***


I'm about to hit the big 50. A couple of my friends are throwing me a party. I'm feeling a little awkward about it, but also good. I just chatted with one of the really good cook folks, and she's going to bake me a cake. (That will blow the "strict" thing for the day, but that's okay.)

I have to decide about asking my sibling and his family. The thing is, I'm not out with my family, but at this party, they'd have to be incredibly obtuse to not notice that there are a lot of lesbians.

I think my brother would be okay. I know my sister in law will be fine.

But I grew up with a mother who lectured me a lot about how horrible "homos" are. In fact, the last big fight I had with her (probably 15 years ago now), she was insisting that gay marriage was an insult to her marriage, and I dared to say that it wasn't, and she said that basically I didn't have a right to an opinion because she is my mother and blah blah. So I told her that if I weren't allowed to express a differing opinion, then she couldn't talk politics at me. Period. And I've pretty much shut down every attempt she's made since to say anything political. (A few years after my father died, she said she'd decided that maybe gay marriage wasn't such a horrible idea after all.)

So, it's just been easier never to say anything to her. (I haven't told her anything meaningful about my personal life for years before that, because she thinks my business is everyone's business. Seriously, when I was in high school she'd meet some friend at a restaurant, and then I'd walk up from the restroom, and the stranger would tell me about how they'd been talking about my period or my failing a school quiz.)

And I'm a coward. Have I mentioned that before? Yes, I'm a coward. COWARD.

So I have to decide to tell my brother. And then my Mom will inevitably find out. So I should probably mention it to her before that. And then there will be fireworks simply because I'm an uncommunicative and horrible daughter who should have told her years ago. And that's true. I am uncommunicative.

Research Crumbs

I'm working on my questionnaire thing, so that I can get it all ready for the IRB and ready to do the project. But every time I talk to someone who's smart and has done stuff before, they have a good question that brings me to a stop for a while. That's good, because each time, figuring out the answer helps me. But it's also frustrating in that endless draft way.

So here's how you can help: I'm trying to figure out a good term(s) for the sorts of papers I'm interested in researching about within English literature courses. I've been using "research paper," but a colleague just gave me some really helpful feedback and thinks that the term itself might be confusing and/or misleading. S/he suggested that "literary analysis" was what s/he'd been assigned as an English major.

So, what term(s) do you use for the "big paper" usually due near the end of a junior or senior level lit course?

If anyone would be willing to send me a copy of an assignment for one of these papers, I'd find that helpful, because I need to think about how these work before I ask my colleagues here. (If you're a colleague here, pretend you aren't for the moment, or something.) My email is bardiacblogger AT yahoo DOT com.

Thanks, oh wise sharers of the blogosphere!

New Air Service

We've got new air service in the North Woods!

Bike Bragging

This ad cracks me up.

I rode a short loop today. Around here, some of our tougher little hills have names. Today I rode Priory Hill and Orchard Hill. (You can guess what's at the top of each of these little hills, can't you?) The Tour men wouldn't notice them, but I do. You know the way the Tour men look after a 100+ mile ride going up a really steep 5K climb at the end? And some of them "fall" off the back? I look like I've fallen off the back of my lone self peleton after 2 miles and a very short hill. But it's worth the struggle to get up the hill when I get to bomb down it.

I wonder how many energy gels I could eat without throwing up?