Bitten

It’s official, I’ve been bitten by the obstacle race bug. (Also any race involving the undead!) I have two more races this year to sign up for (though neither are obstacle courses), the Zombie Buffet 5K and the Never Quit 5K.

The Zombie Buffet 5K is a road based 5K in downtown Jacksonville where you start at one location, the zombie horde starts at another, and then you meet in a contamination zone. You then try to escape the zombies from taking your life (another flag based event) and get this! If you are ‘killed’ early enough, you are able to go through a transformation and start chasing down survivors yourself! Ellie said it sounded like a big game of tag, lol. I think it sounds fantastic, so I’m definitely signing up for that.

The Never Quit Beach Fest 5K is a beach 5K on Jacksonville Beach that I did last year and had a blast. It’s an out and back course on the sand, and I’m going to try to PR with this race. My current PR is 28:59 (from Africa!), and I think I can beat that with training, especially since I live in the perfect location for beach run training! :)

Last year’s Never Quit Beach Fest

I am also going to try to incorporate some barefoot running training in, since running on the sand is perfect for my Vibram 5 Fingers! (Speaking of shoes, I need to go purchase some new running shoes, mine are done for!)

I want to do more obstacle races this year, but Shane and I decided that would be ‘our’ thing to do together, and he is deploying, so I don’t really want to do them without him. Not to be all sappy, but he’s also my best friend, so things are just not as fun without him anyway. Road races are totally ok, though. ;)

For next year, we’re looking into another Run For Your Lives (or two, hopefully they pull out more SE stops than just Atlanta, Florida would be ideal!), the Animal Kingdom obstacle race at WDW (missed being able to do this one by 2 weeks, boo.), a Warrior Dash, Swamp Romp, etc. All of these are obviously dependent on times/locations/$$$/where the USMC decides to move us next.

Well, I’m off to do some laundry and immerse myself in my new book. (I’ve so been slacking on reading lately! Too much reality tv/XBOX, not enough reading. This morning I started Delerium by Lauren Oliver… I foresee this being finished by tonight!

Book Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

First off, I was almost afraid to start reading this, because the photographs gave me the creeps.

And it’s easy to give me the creeps.

Here is the excerpt from the jacket:

“A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience.As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.”

In this fictional tale, author Ransom Riggs takes real and unrelated photographs and creates a unique and intriguing story, giving each photograph a character, or as a rare experience for a reader, each character a photograph.

A preview of some of the photographs:

I really enjoyed this book. So much so, that it only took me a day to read! The author painted such a vivid picture, it felt like I was in the moment with them, and I was enthralled by the children and each one’s “peculiarity”. But the best part of all, at least for this girl?

It was not scary.

I loved it, and would recommend this quick, easy, interesting read to anyone! <3

Saturday Shenanigans

Hey y'all!I hope everybody's Saturday was fun! Mine sure was. I woke up kind of early, which was surprising since I stayed up so late watching Desperate Housewives (Hi. My name is Katy, and I'm a Housewives-a-holic.) But since I was up, I decided not to waste the day, and go hang out at the mall.

The mall is seriously my zen place. Seriously. I can spend hours there just wandering around. Especially if it has a bookstore. I think bookstores are my favorite places ever. (After Disney and Sea World. Ok. I have lots of favorites.) So I hit up Barnes and Noble first thing. :) I only bought two books, and they were both clearance! Score! I also bought some grandpa shoes from Payless, also on sale. I think they will be so cute with some shorts in the summer, though! :) Yeah, that is the sequel to The Friday Night Knitting Club. And you bet your booty I started it when I was eating my lunch at Chili's. Yes ma'am.

So, afterwards I decided to come home and read some more/fall asleep for a few hours. (See, I knew I would make up that missed sleep this morning!) Then it was off for a run!

Now. Let's just be honest here. I have been avoiding exercise like the plague. I'm talking nasty, gonna mar my skin with infected sores plague. And I can tell by looking at my body. Which just makes me sad. Plus, I love exercise, and the endorphins I feel afterwards. So enough is enough. I don't need to be Jillian Michael's, but I do need to do something. Every day. Even if it is as small as using my 5 lb weights for a 5 minute arm session. (Though, mostly, I'll just be running.) So here's the deal, and I need y'all to help keep me on track! From now until June, I'll be running at least four days a week. That's the rule.

Starting June 1st, I am going to do P90X Insanity, and I mean actually stick with it. It's a personal challenge, and I want to be able to say I completed it. Then once that is over, it's half-marathon training time. My half marathon (hello DisneyWorld!) is on January 5th, 2012, so I have plenty of time. But I have to actually work for it! So no more slacking. It's crunch time, and those bikinis aren't getting any more flattering. :)

I went on a run today, and it felt good. I mean, really good. I used my BIC Band (I have four, and I love every single one!) and ran 2.6 miles on the golf course. I saw cute little ducklings with their momma (and a goose?), but I couldn't take any pictures because I left my camera. Rookie mistake for sure. Here I am all sweaty.

I came home and made a post-workout smoothie, and it was pretty yummy. Ingredients are as follows:

+Silk Pure Almond (seriosuly yum.)

+Baby Spinach

+Raspberry Chobani fat free greek yougurt

+Be BUFF blueberries and cream protein powder (this stuff is the bomb dot com.)

+Frozen fruit medley of raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries.

I use frozen fruit because it is cheaper, lasts longer, and if you use frozen fruit you don't need to add ice. Which is a good thing because I have the most frusterating blender on the planet. Seriously. It's cheap and doesn't blend very well. But it's only a temporary one to get me through barrack's living. (Hence why I bought the cheapest model!) I also steamed up some broccoli, (thank you Ziplock Steam bags!) and it was amazing. I love broccoli so darn much. I seriously inhaled the whole bowl of broccoli before even really touching my smoothie! Haha.

Well, it's off to play some XBOX, and watch some DH. Don't forget to enter my giveaway! I think I will choose a winner on Tuesday. Which is also the day I have my hair appointment. What? You don't think inch long roots are attractive? Yeah me neither.

Have a great weekend!

Three Tangent Tuesday... And a Giveaway!

Oh. My. Goodness. I just finished The Friday Night Knitting Club, and let me tell you. It's fantastic. I mean, genuinely warm and lovely and moving and inspiring. I just spent the last few hours laying in bed crying my eyeballs out, unable to put it down. All thoughts of other plans for this evening flew right out the window.

I recommend this book so much. So so so much. I don't know if I can put it into words. So, not only am I going to tell everyone to read this book, but I'm going to give one away. So enter by simply leaving me a comment. Please link to your blogs/twitter/etc. You'll get extra entries, but it's not mandatory. :)

I just really want others to read this book. Haha. Now I need to read the two following books in the series. It's a series! I'm so excited. But I still think I'm going to put it on hold until after I read Something Borrowed (also in a series! Yeesh!) just so I can go see the movie as soon as it comes out! :)

Today was aight. (Don't you love that word?! Oh, it's just me? Ok....) More TAP class, all about the resume. Eeeek! I am so bad about bragging about myself and thinking up clever ways of making my experience sound earth-moving. Haha. Not looking forward to that, but I certainly got lots of sound advice, and a whole book to reference. I also learned that there are Veteran reps in every city in America that will help you with resumes, interviews, and job searches for free. Um, thank you Uncle Sam. :) Also learned how to negotiate salaries. More eeek! I'm such a wimp when it comes to some things. Guess I'd better get the heck over it. :)

Also went grocery shopping so I could make my lunches the rest of this week.The only remotely non-fast-food-like thing to eat has been Subway. And while I could (and would!) eat Subway every single darn day of my life, it is getting expensive at $10 a day. So I have a lunchbox (an impulse buy when I first got back to America- it is SO CUTE.), and I figured it was past time to put it to good use. :) I'm actually pretty excited even though I only have two mor

e days of class left, and it's back to 15 minute work days. (Yeah, you read that right. And, no. The military is not normally like that. I wish.) So I will be participating in WIAW, as I've been promising for like two months now to the lovely Jenn. Though she probably won't believe me until it actually happens tomorrow! :)

Anyways, enough babbling. On to TTT!

Three Tangent Tuesday

+ I can touch my tongue to my elbow. Yup. Sure can. I was in a tech school for the Navy and one of my classmates was going on about it is physically impossible to do, wh

ich meant that everyone immediately tried. Except me, I was far too nervous at first, having fallen for the 'Smile Like a Donut' trick once before. (Think about it.) But, alas, watching all these people fail, I gave in and had to try. It was super easy for me. So I immediately proclaimed him a liar, and he made me prove it to him, and was all flabbergasted. So now it's my neat little parlor trick. :)

+ I always flip a new quarter over to see the State. Every. Single. Time. I am like a little kid,a nd love the surprise of which of the 50 States (and now commonwealths) I'm going to find on the back of those silver coins. :)

+ One of my nicknames is Socks. I love, and I mean love fun, funky, flirty, skull and crossboned

, knee-high, bright colored, mis-matched, crazysauce socks so flippin much. I started dating a guy a long time ago, and his housemate had such a hard time remembering my name (he was quite inebriated most of the time) so he dubbed me 'Socks' because of my socks. It caught on. Here are some pictures of me in some of my fun socks. :)

Playing Monopoly on NYE 2009. Like a boss.

Ok, I found more, but they definitely have people who may not want to be on the blog in the photos, so I'll have to respect that. :)

So, I hope everyone has a great day! Don't forget to enter the giveaway! :)