be still my heart

Castle Gibson has some amazing things for sale...you know how I have a thing for drawers.

holy cow...

sigh...

I missed out on this beauty below this weekend. I was going to buy it for Carson's room and use it as his dresser. Now I am on the hunt for something equally as cool. Does anyone have any sources for good, cheap lockers, or other cool metal furniture?

you capture-friends

This has been a week of friends and friendship (see previous post). I had a great time taking photos on Saturday of Carson at his first tackle-football scrimmage. This was the showing-off of skills learned at the week long "pad" camp. Below is Carson and his buddies full pads, mouthguards and all.



Also, My mom and dad got a new puppy, and his littleness contrasted with the older dog's bigness was too cute. I suppose they can be considered friends too:

And, just because this photo of Carson is just too cute, I had to include it!

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on friendship

As I sit here at my desk and type this, I am pondering friendship. Reading extranjera's post on friendship in the real world (as opposed to this internet world) has kinda firmed up what I have been thinking about for some weeks now.


In some ways, internet friendship is like falling in love. There is all of this hurried, harried wanting to talk. Late nights on the internet chatting back and forth, making plans, wishing for closeness so there can be visits, etc. Sometimes those visits come to fruition. Last year, I spent a day with the wonderful Jessie of The Lucky Stone. It was fabulous and wonderful and marvelous. There was shopping and eating and general fun. We had a good time. I would say we are friends. She lives 3 hours away from me in a town I rarely visit, so it isn't really possible for me to visit her much. She is a cool chick, and we still chat a little, but it is almost like after we met in real life, something happened and we got busy and that newness/chattiness wore off. Or maybe I am just a doof and she figured it out for real when we met! :)


In other ways, internet friendship is like junior-high school friendship. We try to make friends with the "popular" people. We try to be in all the right places doing all the right things on the off-chance that those cool people might take notice of us. We use ideas and language and that is similar to theirs so we can be seen as part of the group. As with junior-high friendship, this is often short-lived. I find myself following these people, and then for the sheer volume of folks who follow (because they should as it's "the" thing to do) I take the blog off my reader. For me, there is something wrong about being a part of the group just to be part of the group (does that make sense?). Most of the time I realize that that isn't me, and I am not interested in following just because everyone else does. I need a connection, a personal reason for following. This is the same reason I don't love memes and serial posts that all of the others are doing. I find it interesting to read, but not original. And not for me.

Then there is the deep, meaningful kind of friendship that can develop over time. By reading and learning all about someones life, and their family and career, you start to feel a connection to this person. You start to chat with them and make other friends with their friends, but it is that person who you get to know. You talk about your past. You talk about your marriage, and your children. You talk about things that aren't just superficial. These kinds of friendships take time to develop. Many times years to develop. There is often not a rushed feeling to the relationship. These friendships happen when there is time, and in between the cracks and other events in our lives.


I am so lucky to have recently found myself in one of these meaningful (non-internet) friendships. My dear friend and most-of-the-time-when-we-are-both-in-town exercise partner is all of these. I find myself missing talking with her when one of us is out of town traveling. I really miss it when she isn't here to push me to exercise. She is the reason I ran the 1/2 marathon and why I signed up for the triathlon. I love her and am so glad to have found her.


But I digress...As I think back, each of these kinds of friendships is important and needed. We need new love, we need to be noticed by the popular people, but we also (and for me, most importantly) need to open ourselves up and be willing to get hurt while making new, REAL friends. Those friends who will be with you thru thick and thin. Friends who will finish your sentences and will fill your wine glass. We need those friends who will cry with us and push us to be better. My experience has been and continues to be that this happens best in real life...the real world, and down the street...not on the web.

you capture-black & white

This week's You Capturetheme was black & white. I love looking at black and white photos, but for some reason when I take them I always seem to lean toward more architectural/linear things. I am also a sucker for address numbers and fonts. So, here are my favorites for this week:









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5 random things that gross me out

Just recently I have encountered several of the following things in a matter of hours, and I was thinking that maybe if I wrote about them it would be kind of cathartic. Maybe it would ease my grossed-outedness.

1. hair. Not generally the kind still attached to my head, but specifically the hair that collects in the drain of the shower, that is in my hairbrush and needs to be pulled out, and the hair of the dog (literally) that has to be swept up from the corners of my hallway.


2. wet paper towels. It really grosses me out to have to change the trash bag in the bathroom at work that is full of wet paper towels. I am sickened in public bathrooms where trash cans are overflowing with other people's paper towels. I usually try to use the air dryer (less waste that way too.)


3. lotion plugs. You know, that smeg that blocks the end of the lotion pump? It kind of gets hard and thick and shoots out when you least expect it; then you have to pick it out of the lotion in your hand and throw it out. Ick.

4. that jelly/gel stuff that chicken juices turn into after they have been cooked and cooled. Gross. Plus also, what do you do with it? Throw it in the trash...put it down the drain?

5. locusts. You know the kind that go 'eee-eew' all night in the summertime? They're gigantic and they shed their exoskeletons all over the place and are generally disgusting.

Phew, I do feel better now getting that off my chest!

one fourth

image from poca-traca's flickr photostream

Sunday marked the end of the fourth week of training (of 12) for the Olathe Women's Triathlon. I have done fairly well on the training thus far. For some reason, I am not getting too stressed out when I miss a day of training like when I did for the 1/2 marathon. Maybe it is because I am in much better shape than I was when I was 4 weeks into the marathon training. Maybe it is because this training encompasses 3 different sports, so doing all of them several times a week makes me feel like I am doing more. Who knows.

image from Gregoire Saunier's flickr photostream

This training schedule calls for only 1 day of rest per week. As you can see, I take more than that. Mostly because most weeks I can't possibly get out for an entire hour every night. Some weeks (like this one) I am travelling a lot, and other weekends I spend my days "working out" on the garden or painting, putting down new floors or taking off wallpaper in the Molly's room. By the evenings, I am WIPED out!

image from irontigg's flickr photostream

Sunday I did my first brick. A brick is a training day where you do 2 of the 3 sports. So, I set off on my bike at 6:50pm for 45 minutes of riding (and darn it if I didn't pick a really hilly route) and then after the 45 minutes, I parked my bike, and ran for 10 minutes. Sounds easy, huh? Well...10 minutes was ok, because I couldn't really feel my legs until about minute 9. After that I THOUGHT I MIGHT DIE! Actually 45 minutes of riding or 10 minutes of running by itself is easy...it is the one after the other that is hard. Admittedly, you DO use different leg muscles for each, but still. I was glad when it was over! At lease I was out of town when my friends did their brick on Saturday morning...IN THE POURING RAIN! Phew!

Tonight...it's back to swimming. Thank God!

you capture-shapes

This weeks you capture theme was shapes. I am usually drawn to squares, so it was interesting that the photos I took and liked were actually circles.

...cherry dilly bar (which started out life as a circle)

...and the circular center of the sunflower, my state's most beautiful flower!

Join us:

you capture

I read Shindig. If you don't, you should. Zackary is participating in You Capture, and I decided I needed that challenge too. Here is my first try.

This week, participants could choose from July 4th or food. Of course, I kinda forgot about taking any photos Saturday on the 4th of July, but I can always manage shots of food. Even when I don't make it. So, here it is! Any guesses what it is?

signs and landmarks

When I am running or biking (and sometimes swimming) I am a very goal oriented person. Most often, my goals are signs and landmarks. For example:

*run hard to that next telephone pole

*take a drink after the next big hill

*down-shift after crossing the next driveway

*stride big past the cemetary

Are you a goal setter? Like all things in life, having small goals helps me to feel accomplished, and makes something that is hard just a bit easier.

>>image from here

ps, I just realized another reason (the main one?) that I hate the treadmill...no landmarks, nothing to get a goal for...

leader or follower

Are you a leader or a follower? I have had some thoughts lately about this whole following thing in the blogosphere. Should one be trying to get followers? Does the number of people who are following your blog really mean anything? If you have 856,924 followers are you any more cool than the person who has 10? How about twitter? Is it the same? What is someone un-follows you or blocks you...should you take that as a compliment or rejection? What's up with blog stats? If you are blogging for a living I can totally understand needing to know about numbers. That's how you get paid: hits, followers and advertising. But if you blog for yourself, does it all really matter? In the words on the wonderful Molly, "blog like no one is reading."

I have had a hard week on the interwebs, and lost a good friend. She both blocked me and un-followed. My feelings are hurt. I will continue to blog like no one is reading, because, to me, it doesn't matter. 856,924 followers or 10, this is my journal and I am honored that some of you choose to read. Thanks.

What the Fuck Wednesday

Yes, that is a condom that measures and shows off penis length. What the Fuck?

As Buck Wolf says "One small consolation: The Spanish manufacturer only sells metric-based condoms, so if you don't do the centimeters-to-inches conversion, it might make you feel 2.54 times larger than you actually are. " If you live in the US, that is!

If you need some, buy 'em here!