So, I said on Monday that I'd wait another week or two to try running, if my sanity held out. It didn't. Monday evening I tried running on the treadmill at work. (Yeah, I know, I didn't even make it an entire day before I caved; I'm a paragon of restraint.) It felt great, my foot didn't hurt at all. And since then, the tension headaches I was getting almost every day at work haven't come back. Maybe that was part of the problem, I wasn't getting the stress relief I needed. I've been exercising on the stationary bike and elliptical trainer, but that's just not the same as running. They don't give me the peace of mind that running does. Yesterday I did the bike, not wanting to push things too hard too quickly, but tonight I ran again. My endurance doesn't seem to have suffered *too* much, so hopefully in a week or two, I'll be able to start my half-marathon training program.

I'd like to do the Bayshore half-marathon in Traverse City, Memorial Day weekend. One possible obstacle I can foresee is that it's on a Saturday morning. If I can't get Friday off from work to drive up north, I'll have to leave after work at 9 pm, which would have me getting to my parents' place after 1 am. The race starts at 7 am, and my parents live about 45 minutes from Traverse City. In short, I'd get very little sleep. So, my back-up plan is the Dexter-Ann Arbor Run half-marathon, the following weekend. Hopefully, all will go well, and there will be no setbacks or obstacles; I'd really love to run along Grand Traverse Bay for my first half-marathon!

Photo of the Day

Ice Storm 142
Originally uploaded by tina_inara.

Another pic from the ice storm last month.

Ice Storm 148
Originally uploaded by tina_inara.

I finally got around to uploading the photos I took of January's ice storm to Flickr.

It's been quite a while since I've posted here, and I'm still feeling a bit on the lazy side blogging-wise. So, I'm going to borrow a trick from my friend Shawn, and post a list of what I've been up to.

-Reading: Fluke by Christopher Moore, Kiln People by David Brin, and Chi Running by Danny Dreyer, I've also finished all but one of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series.

-Listening to: NPR and Phedippidations podcasts, audiobooks

-Watching: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Firefly on DVD, Lost, BSG, Dresden Files

-Running: not at all, sadly. Thought I had a stress fracture, but the bone scan turned out negative, thankfully. I'm sticking with bike and elliptical for another week or two if my sanity will handle it, then will ease back into running. Still hoping to do a half-marathon this summer, and a marathon in the fall, all going well.

-Organizing: Cleaned out old records and financial statements, shredding everything, over the weekend. (Catching up on podcasts is a GREAT way to make this process go by more quickly!) Felt good to purge old stuff. Still need to go through old clothes, shoes, books, etc, and take to Goodwill.

NPR/PBS Petition

President Bush has proposed slashing funding for PBS and NPR by about 25%. Moveon.org is sponsoring a petition in an effort to convince Congress to guarantee funding for them. PBS has said that should the cuts take place, it will no longer be able to offer children's programming such as Sesame Street and Reading Rainbow. Click here if you would like to sign the petition; it takes about a minute to complete.