Thursday, January 22, 2009

Weak knees... and a couple of dates

Howdy y'all!

Thing have been super busy here lately. I am finally back in the gym now, after a rather long hiatus. My right knee has been giving me grief, so I figured it was time to get back to squats and the like.

I'm heading out for my first run in days... hoping the knee will behave.

Naturally, the temperatures have dipped and it's friggin' cold out there again. Argh!

In other news, this week I got the date date for my final Ph.D. oral exam (a.k.a. thesis defense). For now that date is top secret, so that in case I don't pass I have a couple of days to process it before I tell anyone. I will say that it isn't for a couple of months yet... late spring.

But being the eternal optimist that I am... I applied to graduate yesterday. February 1 is the deadline to apply, so at the urging of another grad student, I gulped and took the plunge. What's the worst that can happen? I flunk my exam and graduate later. But if I don't apply to graduate now and I do pass, I have to wait to graduate later anyway. So... what the heck!

If it all works out, I should graduate in mid-June - Friday, June 12 to be exact.

Now I just have to get my knees in shape for the marathon on May 31 and my butt in gear to walk across a stage a couple of weeks after that.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

20 seconds

Twenty seconds. That's all it took for me to realize, during my run the other day, that my water bottle belt was uncomfortably snug. I had to let ot out some.

Boooooo!

Too much holiday cheer I'm afraid. Well, that coupled with the stupidly freezing temperatures we had through the latter part of December, dipping down as low as -42 C (around -46 F) with wind chill on at least one occasion.

It's been better this week, though the above-freezing temperatures they promised for today seem to have been revised. It will be a little below zero today and then get colder again.

Oh joy.

As I sit inside working on my thesis draft corrections, I mentally scheme of ways to get my water bottle belt back to where it was... and wear it comfortably.