Hair and yarn

Tuesday I went and got a haircut. At the Spouse Club meeting last week, one of the spouses dropped off her cards and so I decided to give her a try. She was very nice and I think she did an excellent job with my hair. I just wish it wasn't so stinking expensive! Even with the military spouse discount, I spent more than $50. Ugh. And I thought that $35 in Pensacola was expensive.

After that I decided to go to Carmel and visit the third local yarn shop, Knitting by the Sea. I really liked this shop and the owner. After one regular customer left, I talked to her about whether she needed/wanted help with the business or a teacher for classes. She does not at this time, but took my information and said she'd call if she found she did need something. I told her a little about myself, being a shop owner, and all that and I think that put her mind more at ease. As it turns out, she was a mechanical engineer before opening her shop. We had a good laugh over all the things we had in common. I enjoyed my visit there.

I have been working on Regina's sweater, but having gone so long without a finished project, I decided that I needed some instant gratification. Or maybe I was finding it too hard to resist the jonz to cast on the Thermis. I have wanted to do this project for months or longer!

I had the perfect yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in 173 Stonechat (towards the bottom under "variegated". I was a little hesitant, as my last experience with Malabrigo was less than satisfying on many levels. It made my hands dry and crackly and it pooled something fierce. This experience more than made up for it. I am really pleased with the final product, although I may change out the buttons.

If I do this again, I will likely not do the recommended sewn bind off, but rather a tubular bind off, or maybe Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off. The sewn bind off does give it a lot of stretch, but it makes it lose the tightness of the ribbing.

On Monday I had the pleasure of teaching Mina to knit after our run. She picked it up very quickly and I know she will become a great knitter, if her interest stays and if she finds the time to practice. I really enjoy seeing people learn to knit.

Having completed this little ego booster, I think I will be able to get back into Regina's sweater. I'll still mix in a few other projects to keep me from going crazy from the 1x1 ribbing. I still have the other Vaunt sock to finish as well as two shawls that are on the needles.

Poor baby

On Monday Tawny went to the vet for dental surgery. During her routine exam a few weeks ago they found one tooth that looked really bad. It must have been a recent development, as her teeth were fine at her last checkup. The vet ended up extracting two of her molars and three lumps from her neck. We are waiting on the pathology report.

She has several shaved areas and is pretty lethargic. I feel really bad for her, as she just looks like she feels awful. I hope that we got the teeth out quickly enough and that no permanent damage or disease has occurred.

Couch to 5k

I love this program!

On Monday I had the honor of introducing my friend Mina to the fun world of running. I ran to her house (0.37 miles) and then we did the program (1.94 miles). She did really well. Her pace was in the 11s during the runs. She didn't complain that it was hard, and I let her set the pace. I think she will get into this a lot faster than I did. She is not going to have any trouble doing the Turkey Trot in November. I'm looking forward to running it with her.

It's canning time!

Yesterday Bill and I went to Serendipity Organic Farms to pick tomatoes and raspberries. We got enough raspberries to make jam, which is on my agenda for today. We would like to can some tomato sauce, but the recipe for 14 pints calls for 45 pounds of tomatoes. FORTY FIVE POUNDS!!! I certainly don't have a pot to cook that in! We picked 2 pounds of ready to do something with tomatoes and a few pounds of heirloom tomatoes that won't be good for a few days. I figure I'll make sauce and can however much we can get out of these ripe tomatoes.

Here is a raspberry bush:

After the run today we tried out a new restaurant for the post-run brunch. We went to Rosine's Restaurant in downtown Monterey. There was a line outside, but I didn't have much of a wait. I was seated and had coffee before Bill got back from parking the car. The food was outstanding! I had a mushroom and cheese omelet with (specially unseasoned) potatoes and rye toast and we split a fruit bowl. Mmmmmmm! They did not skimp on the mushrooms. There were so many on the plate!

From where I was seated I could see the dessert case. Oh em gee! I needed an extra napkin because of all the drool. We decided to get two desserts to go. These are about three portions a piece! I run so I can eat, but even 10 miles won't burn these babies!

I selected the chocolate/peanut butter cake and Bill chose the chocolate/peanut butter pie. There were many options, including cookies and cream cake, Kit Kat wafer cake, white cake with sprinkles, German chocolate cake, cookie dough cheesecake, and so on.

Can you see why I was drooling?!

We are saving them for after dinner, but it is possible we'll have them as a mid-afternoon snack, depending on how the canning is going. I am sure that they will assist in the mid-afternoon nap, too!


I'll leave you with a little cuteness (sorry it is blurry).

Obviously the cats love fresh laundry, and Abby likes giving me "the raspberry"!

Ten on the ocean

Awesome run today!

We did 10 instead of the 9 on the schedule. Partly because we wanted to. We drove to behind the OSH and then jumped on the trail from there. The weather was perfect. Foggy and in the 50s. The path was pretty hilly, so that was a good workout.

I suggested mixing up the run a little and doing a few random miles at race pace. I want to take some time off my half marathon time next month. My PR is 2:13:11, which equals about a 10:10 pace. If I do exactly a 10:00 pace, it will take me 2:11:00. I'd like to break the 2:10 mark, so I need to step it up. I'd like my race pace to be 9:50 or better. That was today's challenge. I believe I succeeded!

Splits: 10:49, 11:02, 11:34, 9:45, 10:36, 10:38, 11:21, 9:50, 9:48, 10:51.