Toga!

So I've been busy lately, but at least I was having fun! I even enjoyed the long drive out to Vegas and back. It's 9 hours of high desert. On the way back, I think we took an extra hour just to cross Hoover Dam. The main highway is a mere 2-lane over this dam, and apparently all of Arizona needs to squeeze through this bottleneck to get home from their Vegas weekends too. I'm still catching up on lost sleep from last weekend. But I've managed to get my flower garden started (with help from Mom) this week and start a new knitting project - a felted purse (pdf pattern).

I'm heading out of town again tomorrow to enjoy spring break with some skiing in Durango and backpacking in southern Utah.

Eclipse

Last week, Troy and I enjoyed the lunar eclipse from Sandia Peak. There were some clouds obscuring it, but we did get to see the eclipse for a while and then later the full moon itself. Whenever we meet other telemark skiers around Albuquerque, they always tell us that all the telemarkers hike up Sandia Peak and ski down under the full moon each month. February's full moon happened to be the eclipse as well, so we finally went out there and enjoyed a late Wednesday evening ski... alone. Where were all those people that do this every month?

As a side note, I would have loved to post a picture of our evening skiing, but our camera batteries always die in the cold. Are there batteries that don't die in the cold?

Skull cap

Where, oh where, to find something about the size of a small head, on which to stretch a newly-knitted baby hat....

Backblog

It is long overdue for me to post this cross-stitch baby sampler that I finished in December for my new nephew. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the picture before putting it in a frame and behind glass. So ignore the reflections. The fish come from a pattern that I bought in Hawaii last summer (and have been unable to find online, so if you like the pattern... go to Hawaii). I made the crab pattern myself with Pattern Maker (the outline of the crab came from an online photo). The overall layout was inspired by other baby samplers that I have seen. It's really more fun to assemble my own pattern than simply follow a pattern :)

Name that hike

Here's a picture of a hike that we took in January. Thanks to Troy and digital photo technology for the cool panoramic shot. Can you name the place? I may try this little hike-trivia game every month because I usually hike more often than once a month.

Someday soon I will post photos of recent cross-stitch and knitting projects. I also would like to spruce up my blog page generally... again it will have to wait until I have more time. Unfortunately, "more time" won't happen for at least 4 weeks. There are about three time-consuming (but good) things converging in the next month: 1) submitting my research for publication, 2) organizing and presenting at our student conference here on campus, and 3) taking a trip to Vegas! Of course, I still find time to do other stuff, just not the time to blog about it.

Run for the Zoo

I am now officially getting ready to run the Run for the Zoo 10k in May. It's a ways off, but I am very badly out of shape and I found a 12-week training program for beginners that looks reasonable. I ran 2 miles on a treadmill this morning. I was hoping to do 3 miles, but I really don't like treadmills (and there's snow & ice outside). Tell me if you'd like to train with me (although most of the people I've talked to about running don't read this blog).

Beginner 10k Training Program

Week	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Run 4 (Optional)
1	3 mi run	2 mi run	3 mi run (easy)	x (no optional run, must rest)
2	3 mi run	1 mi run	2 mi run (easy)	2 mi
3	3 mi run	2 mi run	3 mi run (easy)	1 mi
4	3 mi run	3 mi run	4 mi run (easy)	x (no optional run, must rest)
5	3 mi run	2 mi run	3 mi run (easy)	2 mi run
6	3 mi run	3 mi run	4 mi run (easy)	1 mi run
7	3 mi run	4 mi run	5 mi run (easy)	x (no optional run, must rest)
8	3 mi run	3 mi run	4 mi run (easy)	3 mi run
9	3 mi run	4 mi run	5 mi run (easy)	2 mi run
10	3 mi run	5 mi run	6 mi run (easy)	1 mi run
11	3 mi run	4 mi run	6 mi run	x (no optional run, must rest)
12	3 mi run	2 mi run	Race!	x (no optional run, must rest)

This and other 10k training programs from AboutRunning.

New Project

I will post some recently completed projects soon (once I get pictures of them). In the meantime, it is finally time for me to start a cross stitch pattern which I bought a couple of years ago at a great little shop in Victoria, BC. It's a design from Stitching Studios.

It's one of the most dramatic cross stitch patterns I've ever seen. So I am very excited to work on it, although my mom warned me that working on black cloth will be tough. We'll see how well it travels with me to Maryland this week. I better get it started before leaving. Maybe the dim light on the airplane won't be good enough for black cloth, but I hate to lose all that great stitching time on the airplane.

This photo is from October. It is not so warm here right now that I can sit on the patio and stitch. But I couldn't resist posting this picture anyway. I wish it were warm enough to sit outside to eat my breakfast like I usually do. On the other hand, this weather is good for skiing.