August approaching

Normally, I don’t hit my worst Summer Slump until August, but this year it appears to have come a bit early. I hate the heat. I’ve got to move somewhere that doesn’t have temperatures above 80 in the summer or below 30 in the Winter.

Luckily, though, we’re going to Canada for a couple of weeks in August. We’ll be in Newfoundland for most of the trip, but we’re driving, so we’ll see a little of Nova Scotia as well. I’m still waiting on my passport. We called, and they’re a bit behind schedule, but they’ve been mailed out, so we should get it soon.

I’ve been making felt bowls for the Life is Good Productions art auction: Art is Good. It’s on the 19th in Hopkinton. You should go. More info at the LIGP website. I’ll be in Canada during that time, but I’m donating the bowls to be auctioned. I hope they come out as I’m intending them to. That’s the funny thing with felt: sometimes you get surprised when it comes out of the washing machine. I plan on hand felting it so I have more control over the process. We’ll see. The first one is rather large, so hand-felting might be tiresome.

100 days and pants

I don’t know if any of you noticed, but whenever I talk about fitness and health and what not, I tag the entry with “pants.” I thought it’d be funnier than just writing “fitness.” Though, “my big ol’ badonkadonk” is probably the funniest, I think “pants” says enough.

I’m also doing my “100 Days” thing again.^* I’m combining it with the beginning running program from Runner’s World. So, for 100 days I’m working on running. The beginning is just run/walk for 30 minutes, but gradually, I’ll be running for 30 minutes in a row. I got new shoes, and am feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Jesse is doing it with me, and we’ve completed 10 days so far. Not bad for a couple of slackers.

^*I do a certain thing for 100 days in a row. If I miss a day, I start counting from the beginning again. It’s tricky, and I’ve never actually completed 100 days of anything, but I’ve made it to 77 before.

Quelle horreur, la France!

Well, France lost yesterday’s game. Zidane was an ass, even if that Italian guy called his sister a slut repeatedly (so I hear from someone who lives in Berlin). Italy plays a dirty game, though. I think two yellow cards in the first five minutes. Though Portugal has broken the record for most yellow cards in this tournament.

The party was super fun, though. Thanks to everyone who attended. I hope you all had as fun a time as I did. Pictures forthcoming, once I finally get around to opening a Flickr account. I’m lazy, but I should get to it in a couple of days.

Italia contra Francia!

Watched the Germany/Italy match with MO yesterday, and Miss Kitty and Rachel came over to watch the Portugal/France match today. I didn’t really care who won the G/I match, but MK and R were for Portugal and I was for France, so we had a bit of a rivalry going. Sort of. Mostly we just laughed at the awesome commentating: “Garangarangarangaran!” and “Simaosimaosimaosimao!” for example.

At least the Portuguese team didn’t bring out the dramatics so much this time. There were only a few fake fouls: “Hey! I just pushed you and now I’m going to fall down melodramatically so I can pretend you just fouled me, Frenchy! Ha!” They were all about the foul-drawing when they played England the other day. Dude, I know Rooney kicked a guy in the crotch, but really, was the drama that necessary?

I’m pretty excited about the match Sunday, especially since we’re having a party to celebrate. Email me if you’d like to come.

Work and play

According to this calorie calculator (click on Activity Calculator), I can burn ~170 calories playing the accordion for one hour. Pretty neat, eh?

Not a total couch potato

I didn’t get the Harvard job, but I’m not giving up. I’d really like to have a job by the time school starts, so I don’t have to worry about it during the semester, and can just focus on school work.

I’m stuck in the summertime funk, though. I hate being too hot. I can’t do anything around the house without breaking a sweat. I hate sweating when I’m not even doing anything strenuous. Working out and sweating? Fine. Eating breakfast cereal and sweating? Not. Fine.

Finally got around to seeing Bend it Like Beckham. Cute movie! It was one of those that I’d wanted to see for ages, and only just now got around to seeing. We also rented Layer Cake (British ganstahs and drug dealer movie), but haven’t got ’round to seeing it. Soon, though.

Hopefully some freecycle people will be picking up some stuff we have around, and the entry way won’t be full of empty bookshelves and what not.

Been working out sporadically. When I’m consistent, I feel great, but when I skip a couple of days it takes all my motivation away. I’m not expanding so I’m happy about that. Still feel wicked out of shape, though. My motivation is a tricky beast.

So many things are connected. For example: If I make my bed right away, the workout gets done early. If not, then it gets too hot for me to want to do it. If my kitchen is clean, then I’ll eat healthy food. If not, then I eat junk, and feel gross, and not clean up. And so it goes.

I started playing with the hand weights during the World Cup matches, so at least I’m not being a total couch potato.