Not so miraculous after all...

Sigh. So it seems that a few cookies will cause a miracle while a pecan pie tart, several pieces of various pumpkin and apple pies, and dozens of reject cookies will reverse any sort of miracles. I honestly sweat sugar instead of salt. Not surprising considering the foods I've eaten lately.

So, color me at my heaviest but not biggest, thanks to jogging around the park. But, not to worry, by January 1st, I'll be back on track. Why then? Well, between making sure Christmas is taken care of, eating cookies and other fun foods, and getting a toothache fixed, my healthy goals aren't going to get much attention.

Not only that, but I'd really like to get to 60-70K (computerspeak for thousands) words on my novel. It's at 59606 at the moment. I've taken a bit of a break after November 25th, only writing a page or so a day. Ideally, I'd be done with it by April 1st, the start of Script Frenzy. A 100 page script in a month? Ha ha ha! Piece of cake! I have a lot more movie scripts written than I do novels for sure. I get emails from Inktip, which matches scripts with production companies. Using this, I'll let them give me ideas that a prodco might be interested in. Even if no one buys or likes it, the Frenzy will be a great writing exercise.

Speaking of exercise... I admit it. When I run, I'm a mouthbreather. Yes, the shame. Because my teeth are sensitive at the moment (Overdue for a scraping which involves FOUR shots in the gums), even breathing in 35F air is sharply painful. Shin splints? No big deal. Migraines? Enough Relpax and I run just fine. Currently 25F outside? Been there, run that. 20F and below hitting a sensitive tooth? No way in God's green Earth am I doing that. There's not enough Ibuprofen I could take to stop the hurt. Thus, I sucked it up and have an appointment for tomorrow. My dentist promised to use the baby needles on me.

In related fun news, I'm toying with the idea of signing up for a couple of runs. One is the annual Groundhog Run, which is 5-10K (ilometers) and is on January 26th or so this year. The other is in May through Oklahoma City's Bricktown. After KC's cloak of humidity in the spring, Oklahoma's air will feel crisp and refreshing, even in July. May won't be a problem. The goal, if I do the Groundhog Run, will be to finish. Bricktown's goal will be to jog the whole way without stopping, walking, or crying like a baby.

In knitting news, my friend Mary 'accidentally' dropped off her Hanne Falkenberg jacket in case someone 'accidentally' wanted to knit it. Since we upped our subscription to Netflix, the garter stitch will be perfect to do while catching up on our movies. Nothing is worse than having parents hipper than you on the movie circuit. I'm excited to work on a Falkenberg, just to say I have. There's a Drops pattern from Garnstudio that's very similar. I'm tempted to knock it out before starting Mary's, just to work out any bugs.

More knitting stuff... I'd like to wrap up some WIPs I have laying around. There's currently seven out there, one of them with a deadline of January 10. It's a scarf, no big deal, but still, they need finishing so I can justify starting new stuff.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

Who knew that only by eating a little bit of cookie dough, a girl could lose a couple of pounds?

I know, the miracle should be more profound than this, but...

Since August, I've been diligently training for a 5K. I could walk several miles, even at a decent clip, but forget jogging, or horrors, running even half a mile.

Then, one day, Mom and Dad ordered me a spiffy running outfit from Cabela's, thus obligating me to actually stick with the torture. That, and the jacket is so cool! It has a little strap for my headphones cord and inner pockets so keys and cell phone won't escape.

Two months into it, I was buying a sports bra and mentioned to the clerk that I liked to run. Weird, huh? I'm not someone who likes to pant for air, ignoring the inevitable shin splints. Something happened, though, blame it on endorphins, but I actually like running. It's rather like cleaning house. While I hate cleaning, I love the results. I'd hoped the weight would fall off a lot more, but it's remained a maddening constant.

In the past four months, I've not lost until just today. But, I've dropped from size 14 to a comfy 12, and can taking jogging a mile at a time for granted. I've also learned that running when it's 25F outside isn't as bad as you'd think. In fact, running (jogging, really) today when the temp is around 52F will be roasting hot compared to last week's mid 20's. Stupid shin splints, a sure sign of doing too much too soon, has kept me from running more distance more often.

Today should be fun. Fry has insisted she can run a 7 to 8 minute mile. Um hm. When it's cold, I run a 13 minute mile, when it's balmy like today, it'll probably be closer to 12. My bet is the girl can keep up for the first half, but will be hurting by the second. Still, she could surprise me and I hope she does.

On the novel front, the word count is 56,588 today. There's a lot of tension in this story, I'm having a tough time keeping the two protagonists apart physically. They're a bit too attractive to each other. A huge heap of sexual tension in a romance is a good thing, I'm betting. It's fun to write and addictive. I'd toyed with not finishing, but can't. I owe it to the characters to get them to the finish line. Yeah, sounds weird if you don't write fiction.

In knitting news... The little Goopa (baby sister) has claimed the Christmas Scarf as her own.


Mom loves her socks,
I'm hoping my mother-in-law likes her scarf. Seeing my friend, Mary's lavendar version, I'm betting she'll LOVE it. Hubby is lobbying hard for me to not felt it. He can want all he wants, but I'm still felting.

Fry would love her fingerless mits if she could find her other one. She's already lost one. The white part glows in the dark, which is cool, but not cool enough to wear to school or anything. (Yes, I'm bitter.)