Friday Question #135
How many emails do you have to get in a day to feel stressed out (by the amount of them)? How do you manage how you respond to them (do you prioritize them)?
Do you email back and forth with your significant other throughout the day?
I think at work, it takes about 25 unread emails for me to feel stressed out. Even though I know they are likely conversation threads, I don’t like feeling behind!
My personal email is an entirely different beast. I’ll feel stressed if I just have 5 personal emails to respond to! I don’t know why – I hate making people wait for a response, unless I tell them it will take awhile for me to get back to them.
According to this little blurb from Women’s Health, the magic number is 50.
I have about a zillion folders in my personal email. I keep things to respond to “unread” in my inbox then file the email after I respond. I am an email hoarder. I rarely delete personal mail.
Now, I thought of the other question when I read this article, about a woman who sent so many emails to her husband that he stopped responding. She thinks he has “information overload” from her sending too many emails.
Steven and I are much more likely to email back and forth throughout the day than call each other. But we don’t write novels. It’s “What do you want for dinner?” “My train comes at 5:50” and “Data is being a butt munch today.” Stuff like that. And I do use Lotus Notes (BARF) to send appointments to Steven. That is the only way we synchronize our schedules!
I’ll have to be careful about the information overload thing though. I do have a tendency to get excited and send out a lot of emails.
Any Asian dish recipes to share?
Do you cook many Asian dishes?
We have been making Steven’s Pad Siew for a long time, but have not done much experimenting with other Asian dishes. The photo above is from a recipe Steven modified for Sweet and Sour Chicken. We made it with tofu and added a sh*t ton of vegetables. It turned out good but still needs some work.
Do you have any Asian dish recipes you’d like to share?
Side note: My nephew is in a costume contest to win a gift certificate to the mall. Please vote for him below, if you like his costume!
Vote here!
Confession: I edit my photos
During my run on Saturday with Erin I was telling her how it bothers me that the path is so beautiful, and the trees so vibrant, yet I can’t capture it on camera.
Here is an example of a photo my camera took on Saturday:
Kind of drab, right? Here is what it really looked like:
There is a part of the Des Plaines River Trail where it curves (if you are headed north) to go along Route 60 and all of a sudden you are surrounded by these tall, skinny trees. And when we ran through it, it was a beautiful sea of bright orange and yellow. It was amazing. But you could never tell from the first photo. It looks so blah.
Here is another example. It was a bit overcast, but the trail did not look like this:
It looked like this!
Subtle difference, but I want you all to see what I am seeing. Not what the camera captures. And I am pretty sure that if I had a nicer camera and was not running while taking photos, it may actually capture things as they are, but for now, I edit.
Some times I have to edit photos of myself too. I might take a photo like this:
and remove that GROSS ZIT, EWWWW!!!
In this case, I am not editing it so you can see what the camera sees… I am sparing you from my gross zits (I have one right there now too – wah).
And in this photo, I would actually cut my arm off, and re-position it to make it look like I was standing there with my left arm at my side.
Just kidding! I am not going to lie about WHO I am – you can always count on me to take plenty of goofy photos to share with you. Like this one, when we were in my dad’s speedboat and decided to open our mouths and see what would happen (because of all of the wind):
But that is edited! Here it is before:
I like to add some “punch” and contrast to my photos.
Do you edit your photos before sharing them (either sharing them on your site or by any other means)? Do you take a TON of photos?
On some runs, I may take over 50 photos. I think I took over 125 at the corn maze run. I like to have a lot of options for editing! And sometimes random snapshots turn out really neat.
You guys can tell I edit my photos, right? Or could you not see the difference here?
I always feel like it is obvious when I am done working on them.
Commenting III
Just documenting that commenting turned itself off again.
Comments closed on purpose.
A particularly good Monday
Alternatively titled “MY PARENTS ROCK!!!”
I received a large package at work today. I was surprised – I usually don’t receive packages at work and certainly wasn’t expecting one!
(I took a photo before opening it but my phone ate the photo – so you get this one!)
Then I saw who it was from – my parents!
What could it be…?
OH MY GOSH ONLY THE MOST COOLEST AWESOMEST HALLOWEEN GOODIE “BASKET” EVER!!!
And you won’t believe what it came with – Star Wars bling:
(Yeah, been chewing my nails)
Thanks Mom and Dad! I will share it with my coworkers! But not the rings, Twizzlers, or Sour Punch Straws. Ha.
This thoughtful package TOTALLY made my day! And it made me think, I am having a pretty good day, for a Monday!
- I received an award at work this morning and was recognized in front of the whole company. I didn’t even know I was being recognized!
- I was so (literally?) pumped after receiving the package that my strength workout seemed SUPER easy!
- My fur buddy Manny went in for a “toof” operation this morning (having all of his teeth removed) and made it through just fine!
- I was able to make a lunch date this week with Erin, even though we are both busy at work.
- I realized on the way to the office that my both ears in my headphones are now broken, but I had a spare pair at work. Muah ha ha!
What makes a good Monday for you?
Just making it through the day? Hee hee. That is sometimes how it is for me.
Who sends YOU surprise packages? To whom do YOU send surprise packages?
Besides my mom, my sister and other family members sometimes send me packages! And Gina and Courtney send me an awesome package before the marathon, check it out! –
Everything in the package was SO good. Especially those organic bars in the front left. And those Sticks & Twigs. And those crisps. And… yeah, you get the point.
I send packages to family, friends and internet friends too! I love sending things!
Shoes, shoes everywhere
Awhile ago, I mentioned that I would be doing a waffle maker review through CSN stores. Well, sadly, the waffle maker I wanted to order became unavailable the day I wrote the post. Schweet. So, we ordered a shoe rack instead, because our garage looks like this:
And yes, those are mostly ALL my shoes. There are 17 pairs of shoes in the picture and I circled the two that are not mine. So we obviously needed a shoe rack, right?
The one we ordered is pretty nice – it looks good and is sturdy. But Steven had to use his tap and die set to re-thread one of the legs and put the “foot” on. The leg had paint and glue in it, and the foot would only screw in a little bit before it stopped. If we didn’t have a tap and die set, we probably would have had to return the product.
It does the job though! Voila!
Picture from Friday
And I will have you know that I threw two or three pairs of shoes away, put a few in my closet, and am going to recycle three pairs:
Picture from Sunday
Does anyone else have a zillion pairs of shoes in their garage? How do you organize all of your shoes, no matter where they are?
I do NOT really care for shoes. I am not a “shoe person” at ALL. Yet, I have what feels like a zillion pairs. I have them on a shelf in my closet (the Brooks and Asics boxes are empty):
I have a hanging shoe rack on my closet rod:
and I have a hanging shoe sleeve thing on the inside of my closet door:
WAY too many shoes. TOO many.
Training Week 53
My next race is the Clear Water Outdoor’s 6th Annual Turkey Trot: 10K on November 20.
Day 365 | October 18, 2010: 3 m run
I ran a few miles on the treadmill to try out my new shoes (Asics Cumulus). They feel much more “cushiony” than the Brooks Adrenalines. I can feel the extra cushion under the ball of my foot, and I can feel that I am landing more on my midfoot. It feels good! I did notice that my toes felt a bit numb from miles 1-2, but I wiggled them around and they felt fine. I wonder if the cushioning raises my foot and puts extra pressure on my toes.
That looks like overpronation to me… ugh, why is this so confusing?
The run was easy, but boring. Treadmill running = snore. And it gets so hot in our bedroom! I need a fan.
Distance: 3.0 | Incline: 1.0 | Time: 30:29 | 1: 10:20 | 2: 10:09 | 3: 10:00
Day 366 | October 19, 2010: rest
Day 367 | October 20, 2010: 5.5 m run
Steven and I headed out to the Rollins Savanna so I could run and he could bike. I also asked him to take photos of me running so I could see how my feet land. Verdict? Mid foot striker… but still landing out the outside. So, outside midfoot striker. Do you think it’s okay that I land like this? It just looks painful, right? It doesn’t feel painful.
You can see some more examples of how I land in the gallery below (if you click on them they open in this window).
It was really a gorgeous run. We had wonderful spring-like temperatures, and full sun. The wind really killed me on my fourth mile though! I felt like like someone was pushing me so I wouldn’t move forward.
Distance: 5.5 | Start Temp: 67° | End Temp: 68° | Time: 55:40 | Avg Pace: 10:07 | 1: 10:13 | 2: 10:16 | 3: 10:20 | 4: 10:31 | 5: 9:50 | 6: 4:28
Day 368 | October 21, 2010: strength + yoga
Strength + Stretch (done during my lunch break):
| 1 Hip Abduction: 3 x 15 @ 115 lb | 5 Seated Leg Press: 15 @ 90 lb, 15 @ 110 lb, 15 @ 130 lb |
| 2 Hip Adduction: 3 x 15 @ 55 lb | 6 Lat Pulldowns: 15 @ 45 lb, 2 x 15 @ 60 lb |
| 3 Biangular Lat Row: 15 @ 45 lb, 2 x 15 @ 60 lb | 7 Arm Curl: 3 x 15 @ 25 lb |
| 4 Leg Curl: 15 @ 30 lb, 15 @ 40 lb, 15 @ 20 lb | 8 Pectoral Fly: 2 x 15 @ 45 lb, 15 @ 60 lb |
I did the YogaWorks Beginners DVD in the evening. It was my first time doing yoga after the marathon and it felt SO GOOD. My body has been feeling so tight, and yoga really loosened it up.
Day 369 | October 22, 2010: rest
Day 370 | October 23, 2010: 10 m run
Erin and I met up at the Half Day Forest Preserve and ran 10 miles (an out and back) on the Des Plaines River Trail. I really love running on this trail in the fall! The trees are so beautiful!
The run was easy and just flew by, probably because I was enjoying our conversation so much. I really love running with Erin! I wish we lived closer to one another.
I felt great throughout the run. My new shoes felt good, and I could have kept going, despite it starting to rain between the 6th and 7th miles (and raining until we stopped)! I did start to get a weird stomach cramp around 9.5 miles, but that was not related to running.
Two notes: wearing a visor is so nice for keeping rain off my face! And, the temperature actually started to drop after the run, because of the rain. Good thing we started running at 8:00!
Run stats: I wore the Asics Cumulus 12s. I drank about 16 ounces of water during the run and had 6 or so jelly beans. We walked a bit during mile 5.
Distance: 10.0 | Start Temp: 59° | End Temp: 59° | Time: 1:45:09 | Avg Pace: 10:29 | 1: 10:44 | 2: 10:41 | 3: 10:35 | 4: 10:51 | 5: 12:02 | 6: 10:20 | 7: 10:21 | 8: 9:52 | 9: 9:55 | 10: 9:30
Day 371 | October 24, 2010: yoga
I did the YogaWorks Beginners DVD. Truth – I always have to force myself to do yoga. I find it pretty boring. On this day, I put my yoga clothes on as soon as I got up to make sure I would do it! Of course, I felt better after I did, since my body felt so tight, especially my quads.
Week Summary: 18.5 miles
This was a pretty good week. I feel like I am still trying to find a good post-marathon routine, but I will figure that all out soon. I was really happy after the 10 mile run – it encouraged me that I will be able to keep up a higher mileage this fall/winter.
An article to share: Thinking about getting new running shoes? This article says the expensive ones are over-hyped and may not help you at all! The article brings up an interesting point that people are more “less cautious” in new shoes because they trust the new technology of them. Interesting! Have you ever felt overly optimistic about a new pair of shoes?
I know I have – this week! Ha!
Post-marathon eating plan
The November issue of SELF magazine features a “bold, modern logo and update of their design” (quote from the magazine) and I noticed they have renamed some of the sections of their magazine. Do you notice when magazines update their look? I always seem to notice.
Anyway, one of the new sections is called “Diet Insiders” and features two new contributing registered dietians who “are ready to solve your toughest diet dilemmas.” Honestly, I usually skim over crap like that, but the first question caught my eye!
I’m training for a marathon and eating all the time! How can I adjust my diet after the race to stay slim?
Stay slim? For me it’s “How can I adjust my diet after the race as to not pile on the pounds?” I had a hard time cutting back my eating after our first half marathon, and again after the second (and it didn’t help that I was injured and couldn’t run).
My hunger was different during marathon training than during half marathon training though. For the half marathons, I felt extra hungry throughout most of training and ate A LOT more. But for the full marathon, it didn’t really hit me until the last week or two, when I was tapering. I ate more throughout, but did not feel that intense hunger.
Either way, if I do not keep my mileage up, I need to cut back on eating, like they are talking about in this article.
And that is really, really hard for me to do.
So my plan is to try to keep my mileage up, and not eat mindlessly. Basically – avoid having to change my eating habits.
Have you ever trained for something that actively affected your hunger? How did you change your eating habits after the event was over?
Friday Question #134
When you eat out, are you more likely to go to a restaurant you know you love, or try some place new?
When you have guests in town, where are your favorite places to take them to eat?
We eat out so rarely now, that when we do, I find myself always wanting to go to one of our two favorite places – El Famous Burrito or Red Robin – I know that when we eat there, I will be satisfied. It’s less of a risk than trying some place new! Of course, when we are out of town, we like to try new places.
The best thing about Red Robin is that they cater to a lot of special diets and allergies – and they now have vegan burgers! It’s a testament to the power of voicing your opinion – I wrote to them asking why they don’t carry the vegan Boca burgers, and they wrote back a few months later saying enough people asked for them that they would! Score!
And when we have house guests (usually family) we end up taking them to these places as well. My family doesn’t have Red Robin where they live, so they like to go there. And who doesn’t want to eat a burrito that’s nearly the size of their head?
I was very tired this entire day… you can tell in the photo! Yikes!
Of course, when we have guests, we really prefer to cook at home, but it’s fun to eat out from time to time!
Moving priority list
Awhile ago, I mentioned that the Lake County Forest Preserve is building a 2.5 mile trail that starts in our neighborhood!
I am totally geeking out about this. I watch for progress every day, and show it to anyone who comes to visit us.
This photo is in our neighborhood, behind a row of houses (those houses are in a prime area for people watching, once the trail is done!). They have cut down some trees here, and smoothed out space for the trail.
And these two photos are from where the trail will end, at a frisbee golf course.
I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL IT IS DONE!
Will we still live there when it’s done (next fall) though? We’ll see!
Last week I was talking to a friend who is moving to the Twin Cities. She was telling me about all the trails they have there. I told her that if I ever move, a good trail system will be my number one priority!
How did you decide where to live? Do you have plans to move in the future? What would be on your priority list for a new area if you were moving?
We live where we do because Steven used to work near here. Eventually, we will move closer to the city to cut back on my commute. I will miss our home though. I love it.
I could see us moving to a different state in the future too. Some day, far away…
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
