WeerFish

Writing and whatnot

weerfish — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:34:32 +0000

Got to get to writing. I quite often wonder if other “writers” ever do everything they can to avoid the actual writing part of being a writer. I mean, sometimes when I think about writing I feel like I did back in high school, 6th period, Freshman English class, right before basketball practice. I’d know it was coming, so suddenly I’d get all these butterflies in my stomach, and my mind would pitch about desperately looking for excuses not to go–oh, I feel sick, or oh, I’ve got to get home right away because…my…cat..is…on…..fire! Something like that.

So, anyway, I’m working on this “thing”, and I just know it sucks, but I so desperately want to finish it. I’ve got to get it out of me, you know? Get the first one out. But every time (well, most every time) I think about doing it, all I can think about are all the OTHER more important things I need to do–like spin the wheel on Bejeweled to see how many tokens I can get for the day. Yeah.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Hot and Soupy

weerfish — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:18:49 +0000

Man, is it hot outside! But, if I’m going to run at 5000 ft., then I’m going to have to push myself somehow (or so I’ve read). I think San Antonio, which is where I am, is only about 1000 ft. above sea level, so I’m a little bit worried about how I’ll do in Denver. I’ve never run at a higher altitude before, though my husband and I did hike in the Guadalupe Mountains once, which are supposed to be at a higher elevation. C’est la vie. We’ll see how it goes. I got my 5 in tonight. Thursday is 9!

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5 Miles and True Blood

weerfish — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:20:51 +0000

Okay, so Sunday’s are long days, but today got knocked down to 5 since last Sunday was 14. This weekend long run goes back up to 16 (oy vey). Also, just finished watching True Blood. Have to say that I am very happy that Lafayette is getting a boyfriend and such a good looking one at that, Jesus (accent on the –soos!) I am greatly appreciating their treatment of homosexuality on the show–well, at least male homosexuality. Need to see more of that and not just the pasty stereotypical Will and Grace type. Anyway, them’s just my 2 cents. I think we’ve got a new pup addition, too. Binks, or Czar Czar Binks, as I like to call him. Sweet boy…

Czar Binksky Belirubnitz Snakoftenitch

Filed under: marathons, running

Just a little note…

weerfish — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:18:46 +0000

I started reading the blog of an old boyfriend’s sister today, and it made me homesick for my old blog (this one) so I thought I’d post something. I’ve got to go for a run now (training for the Denver Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in October), but I’ll be back. No one reads this but me anyway…

Filed under: Uncategorized

I’m Baa-aack!

weerfish — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:04:08 +0000

Even Pílo wants to know if I'll ever blog again

Okay, so I know I’ve been away for a while, but I have been thinking about you (I’m talking to the blog.). For a while there, though, there just seemed to be so much going on that I hadn’t the energy to blog. I’m even debating now whether to recount any of it. It makes me tired just thinking of it. Maybe I’ll just hit the highlights:

My dad had to have emergency gall bladder surgery
On the same day that he was admitted to the hospital, the owners of the semi-abandoned pups that I’d been taking care of and were about to take to a no-kill shelter came and got them out of spite
I got accepted into the ING New York Marathon again and decided to do it–again
I started volunteering as a reading tutor for San Antonio Youth Literacy
I decided to put Pílo and Pala on a B.A.R.F. diet to try and address their health issues
My sister-in-law started having some serious health issues of her own…

Okay, so maybe it doesn’t seem like a lot, but, trust me, I’m a very emotional person, and by that I mean, my emotional state is very important to the quality of my life. I know I’ve tried to get around this–meditation, journaling, physical activity–but emotions are important to me, and maybe that’s not such a bad thing. I mean, if it weren’t for emotion, would we have impulse?

Anyway, blah, blah, blah. Sorry. On a crochet note, I started working on the Courtney Corset Top out of Robin Chachula’s Blueprint Crochet. I’ve got one of the front panels finished, and I thought I had the back, too, but when I finished the front panel and put it up against the back, I realized that I’d worked off the smaller size instructions for the back, and, so, I’m in the process of reworking it.

Front panel of the top complete!

The cool thing about this pattern is that once you’ve mastered the Fairy Wing Stitch pattern, it’s pretty fast going from there on out. I’m curious to see how the ribbing is going to come out once it’s all put together, plus I’m definitely going to run out of yarn soon since I was just working with a couple of balls from my stash.

Oh! and how could I forget? I just finished reading Julia Child’s, My Life In France. Such a wonderful book! Such a wonderful voice! I never thought I’d read Julia Child saying, Balls! She seemed like such a wonderful personality, so alive! And so in love with food. Alas, I was born a little too late to have fully appreciated her artistry. I do highly recommend her book, though. I know it made me happy.

Posted in books, crochet, family, marathons, news, pups, running

The Story of Stuff–You’ve Got to See This

weerfish — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:39:53 +0000

According to The New York Times, over 6 million people have seen the video at its website and millions more have watched via YouTube. The Story of Stuff is a cautionary tale about the effects of human consumption. Here’s chapter one for you. The thing in its entirety is 20 minutes long.

Posted in cool science

The Secret

weerfish — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:18:33 +0000

Found out the secret to my dad’s low blood pressure (possibly): he’s dehydrated. We took my father to see his neurologist yesterday because my mom and he had a scare last week when my father looked like he might have had a seizure. It wasn’t, but my mom took him to the emergency room anyway to have him looked at. It seems my father was eating and decided to get up for some reason, but when he went to stand (he said) he started to black out. My mom says he fell back into his chair and waved his arms and legs about, which made her think “seizure!”, but the whole episode only lasted a couple of seconds and he was able to speak right afterwards unlike the other times he’s had seizures–oops, I forgot to mention that my dad had been coughing pretty heavily just prior to the incident (both he and my mom had been kind of sick all that week). The neurologist and even the emergency care doctor concluded that it was probably an episode of tussive syncope–a brief loss of consciousness brought on by a bout of heavy coughing. Kind of like when you stand up too quickly after having sat for a long period of time. Nothing major or life threatening but a good thing there was a chair right behind him.

Anyway, so the doctor got to looking at my dad’s records for blood pressure and saw that it was pretty consistently in the ultramarathoner range, looked at my dad’s tongue, and declared that my dad was dehydrated. Apparently, chronic dehydration can lead to lower blood pressure, which, you would think, would be a good thing, but, obviously, walking around dehydrated is not.

He also told my dad not to quit his exercising. My dad had expressed earlier his desire to do so for whatever reason. I informed the doctor of his decision, and the doctor said, “Never stop exercising. Exercise, exercise, exercise. I tell all my patients that now.”

Good advice for us all.

Posted in Uncategorized

Weird

weerfish — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:01:11 +0000

Quick note. I had emailed The Animal Defense League about the neighbor pups and had gotten an email back from the shelter manager requesting more information about the dogs to see how they could help. I sent the information as requested, and now they’ve gone all radio silence for the past two business days. I emailed them again yesterday giving them the benefit of the doubt–busy, emergency at the shelter, act of God–but I still haven’t heard anything. Now I’m wondering if they haven’t just bailed. They could have said something like “The shelter is at capacity right now” or something, and I would have understood–would have had to, but to just not reply when my hopes were up is just wrong. It’s unprofessional. I don’t know how much longer I can keep taking care of those poor pups, and it just keeps getting hotter and hotter…

Posted in Uncategorized

Passion

weerfish — Sun, 03 May 2009 14:13:31 +0000

Oh, man, where does the time go? Well, a quick update on the pups next door. I’ve been busy with them and am currently in contact with the Animal Defense League. Keep your fingers crossed. I’d love for them to find a good home where they’ll be loved and well cared for. On the home front, not much to report–oh! We did go see “Dialogues of the Carmelites” last weekend in Austin, a 20th century opera based on the true story of the murder of an order of nuns during the Reign of Terror in France. It was beautiful. The voices were stunning, and the venue was pretty awesome. Stuart and I like to see opera, especially new works (well, I like to see new works more, anyway). We’re thinking about heading out to Santa Fe again, but it will all depend on finding a good pupsitter…

All right, so I leave you with a talk given by one of my favorite authors, Isabel Allende. It’s a funny, inspiring, emotional talk that’ll get your day going if you need a little pick me up. Watch it even if you don’t, though. It’s only about 18 minutes long.

Posted in Uncategorized

Rain, Rain, Rain All Day!

weerfish — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:45:38 +0000

Well, it rained pretty much all day today. It’s about 5:30 now, and we’ve got a little respite. I took the poor pent up pups outside for some fresh, cool air, though all they did was mope on the porch. I walked around the garden checking stuff out. Poor vegetables and fruits need the rain. I think I might have to get rid of the last remaining Purple Calabash tomato plant that I have, though. It’s kind of yellow looking, and I don’t think it’s going to make it. Never buy a plant from a guy who says he’s just sprayed them for a virus they’ve got. He was supposed to be this “tomato guy”, though. You know, some guru guy whose plants sell out even before the seeds have sprouted. Pardon me, I just had to go look him up, refresh my memory. Keith Amelung is his name. Heirloom Tomatoes of Texas. I’m sure enough people have had success with his plants that my failure means nothing, but I can’t help but think that I should have listened to that little bell that went off when he talked about that virus…

Anyway, as I said, I was out in my garden today, and I spotted this little guy on my bronzed fennel:

This will be a Black Swallowtail butterfly some day! (after eating all my fennel, first, I think)

Black Swallowtails like to lay their eggs on plants of the carrot family, of which the fennel is one–but so, too, dill and parsley. From what I’ve read, these little caterpillars can decimate a plant before you know it, and it’s taken me so long to grow this fennel from seed! I was kind of hoping it would get to the flowering stage so that it would self-propagate, just like the cilantro has. Oh, well, I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye on it. I don’t want to interrupt a pollinator, but I don’t want to lose a plant, either. Maybe it’s close to pupating. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

Posted in animals, organic gardening, weather