Bursting Echo

This afternoon I packed everything for Missy's yard sale into my Echo. Trunk, back seat, floors, front seat = all full. I'm hoping that I don't get pulled over at some point for not being able to see out of my rear view mirror. I also hope that I sell a lot of stuff.

Small TV, small DVD player, my very first interview suit (which I will donate to one of those places that get people back on their feet if it doesn't sell), my giant scrapbook totes, half of my rubber stamps, shoes, purses, jewelry, about 10 glasses that I've stolen from bars, 6 still-in-the-wrapper scrapbooks, you name it, it's going in the sale!

Tonight I'm going to take everything over to Missy's and we're going to price things. That will probably be the hardest part. I want to price things so they sell, but not so I don't make any money. I have two dresses that I bought for $40 each that I never wore. But other things I don't care about - I'd rather try to get some money for them, but otherwise they're going to Goodwill. I'll also have to barter like the guys from Pickers! I hope I'm as good as they are...

And now...pics of the packed Echo:

Wordless Wednesday: Cleaning Up & Reducing

There was a showing of my house the other night at 6 pm. So I had to do this:

 You can see the futon! And the rug!

 Clean and uncluttered steps!

ALL dirty clothes in the basket and you can see the floor!

And before that, I was working on getting things ready for Missy's yard sale. I even reduced all of my stamps down to one stamp shelf!

 Look at all of those purses!

Today's job: start sorting through clothes...

Reducing Effort Foiled By Rain

This is what happens when weather.com lies straight to your face and tells you that there is only a 15% chance of rain at 2 pm.

Worcester Fire Dept. 5k

Since this summer's theme is to reduce, I decided to join Rudi and some other friends at the Worcester Fire Department's 11th annual 5k.

Trying to "reduce" makes me do things that cause me to end up looking like this:

It's not an entirely pleasant picture, but I matched my current mile PR (12:19) even though I was going downhill. I started off innocently enough thinking, "Well, this isn't too bad!" I looked down at my Garmin and it was giving me a pace that started with an 8. "Oh crap, better slow down or I will die," was my next thought.

The scenery through Heebner Park was awesome though. I had never been through the park since they created it when I was off at college. There are ball fields, soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts! I wish they had that there when I was a kid. Aren't we the up and coming township. The course started off nice and flat and I thought perhaps they were kidding when they announced that it was all uphill on the way back.

We jogged through Heebner Park and then down Heebner Road (for those of you not familiar with Worcester Twp, are you catching a theme?). We turned right at Hollow Rd, which has a surprising number of houses on it. When I graduated from high school it was an old gravel road. There was a large ladder truck stationed at the intersection of Hollow and Fawn Rd where we cruised around an orange road cone whose top looked like it caught the business end of a fire at once point. Then it was back uphill. I was pretty much jogging (and I use this term loosely) until the halfway point. My shins were hurting and my lungs were burning, which all means it's time to walk. I walked alllll the way back up Heebner Rd. and then jogged at spurts through the park. With just a few minutes until the finish end, the album I was listening to (The Donnas - Spend the Night) stopped. I didn't want to waste time finding a new one to listen to bc I was already at 40 min.

I crossed the chalk finish line at about 41:44 but couldn't get my watch to stop until 41:49. The "official" time was 41:50, but I wasn't at the head of the pack at the starting line. My Garmin said the course was 2.99 but I'm not sure how accurate that was. I bet if I had stuck to the right side of Heebner and Hollow I would have made it a little closer to 3.1. Everyone did a nice job though and they were surprised by their times so it was probably a short course. My goal was to get under 43 minutes, which is what I ran/walked it at the beginning of the week in St. Paul. Goal achieved!

Ru and I went home to a spectacular breakfast prepared by Master Chef Byron. I almost had two scones, but resisted. They were totally nom-worthy though.

I'm proud of the time that I ran because I really haven't had really any practice or exercise since I completely messed up my back in March. I really enjoyed this race because it was just me and Worcester (and the gnats, which were pretty bad, but worse if you had a visor on). There were only 99 people running, which made it pretty much a solitary event. There were no dogs' leashes to get tangled up in and no crazy women pushing strollers who just decide to stop in the middle of the course and walk. I very much prefer this type of race to the type of races that I've been participating in in Minnesota. Towards the end there were two gals in yellowy-green shirts that had been around me the whole time. And that was all. The gal in yellow totally took off for the last leg. I believe I beat the gal in yellowy-green since I started jogging the last little bit.

Now I'm looking forward to dinner with the fam to celebrate Mom's retirement. I forget what the restaurant is called, but there was a crab mac and cheese on the menu, which I will totally be ordering.

2011 Summer Theme: REDUCE

I've chosen the theme of reducing for this summer. I need to reduce not only the things that I own, but also my body. Thanks to my back injury, laziness, and a touch of depression over not being able to play tennis while injured, I am now back at a weight/feeling that I am definitely not comfortable with.

My plan (stuff):
- Go through one room in my house at a time and pare things down to the minimum. The first room that I want to tackle is the dining room. This is where all of the scrapbook stuff lives. I know I have a lot of stamp pads that have dried out. I have stamps that I've never used. I have a scrapbook bag (okay, two) that hasn't seen the inside of an Archiver's in well over six years.
- Donate shoes, purses, and clothes that I haven't worn in the past year (or two). I know I have some ridiculous PE track suits that I will never wear again. Man, was I dorky. Ru mentioned sweaters. Even though I live in MN, I rarely wear sweaters. I have my stand-by LL Bean button down sweater that I wear with EVERYTHING. I would gladly give away all of my sweaters and just get another LL Bean sweater in another color.
- Sheets. Do I really need five sets of sheets??
- I will also be taking all of my CDs to Cheapo. Even if I only get $0.15 for each CD, that's better than hauling them to a new apartment.
- Le sigh. Memory boxes. I think these will finally find a home at a storage place. I can't bare to part with them just yet, but I also don't want to keep moving them all over St. Paul.
- Dishes. Man alive do I have a lot of dishes/glasses. I even have a box of dishes, unopened, from the wedding registry (you know, just in case we broke some). I've stolen more beer glasses than any one person should ever own as well.
- Ru also made a good argument for throwing out all thongs from college. Old sports bras, bras, and undies should get tossed as well as old socks that only see the light of day when I'm desperate and haven't done laundry.

My plan (weight):
- Elliptical during Kathie Lee & Hoda (10-11 am). I need to elliptical during a show and this gives me an exact time in which to do it.
- Run/walk a 5K distance at least once a week.
- Play tennis at least once a week.
- Drink at least two Nalgenes per day. I even bought a separate Nalgene for water with lemons.
- Add more fiber into my diet. I used to be super good about this, but have let bad sugars and starches creep into my diet.
- No Punch Pizza. No Noodles. No Grand Ole Creamery (except at -10 lbs - then I get a Monkey Sundae!!).
- Limit alcohol to one day a week. When I lost 30 lbs in 2006, I was very good all week and then celebrated the end of the work week with loaded potato skins and a few beers on Friday. Saturday and Sunday I played tennis and then it was back to the elliptical on Monday.
- Starting My Food Diary fresh today. I had logged for the past two years, on and off. I deleted all of the entries and am starting new on June 14.

And with all of that blogged, I'm off to Lifetime with Kathie Lee & Hoda.