Ramblings of A Caffeinated Mind 13.0

Hey. Did you notice? 13.0

Significance? This blog is a year old. Yes. 1 year old. Happy Birthday to Str8 Up With A Twist!

While Str8 Up With A Twist was on hiatus for a few days the milestone passed. (BTW...hiatus always makes me think of Hyannis which makes me think of the Kennedy's but more on them later.)

I would like to thank all of you who read this either on a daily basis or on an occasional basis. I didn't set a counter on it until August and then I accidentally deleted in November so I can only assume how many hits I have had.

I looked at what keywords have brought people to this site. This doesn't include those of you who have me booked marked or have used a link from a Comments section or from another blog. Here are some of the top keywords:

attyhou

str8up

erik barajas

ryan korsgard

mardi gras party at rich's

world aids day houston

get into the groove

santa speedo run 2007

last night

Interesting huh?

Spunk

My horoscope for Thursday, June 5 said:

Though you might be serious, you have spunk and resilience. Your sense of humor comes out when dealing with someone you care about deeply. A relationship could go from very serious to simply silly in a few hours.

It made me think of the Mary Tyler Moore show (I believe the first episode):

Lou Grant: You know what? You've got spunk.

Mary Richards: Well, yes...

Lou Grant: I hate spunk.

That always makes me laugh because she thought it was a compliment.

I used to get a daily horoscope sent to me but the service is no longer available. I would forward it to Friend Janet and we would try to figure who it was more applicable to. You see...

Our birthdays are just a few days apart. So we would try to figure it out. I mention this because one day in December of 2003 I received an e-mail that said, "blah, blah, blah and look in the mirror and congratulate yourself on how fabulous you are." It applied to both of us and that is by far the most fabulous horoscope I have ever received!

Flasher on Memorial Drive

I'm Not Fit To Run has been trying to acclimate to running in the heat. I used to be able to run in the heat but then I switched to becoming a morning runner and became accustomed to running in high humidity.

So. Being inspired by I'm Not Fit To Run, I decided to give it the old college try. Wednesday and Thursday I was at the park around 500ish/530ish and let me tell you bois and gurls, it was hot!

According to the Tim-o-meter (LOL I just thought of that), it had to be in the low to mid-90s on both days. And it was WINDY on both days. According to the Tim-0-meter, wind gusts had to be at least 20 m.p.h.

Well, I need to issue an apology to anyone who might have been driving on Memorial Drive. You see...

The wind was catching my running shorts and was causing them to fly every which way. So I'm sure you saw my butt and my kibbles and bit. I was doing my best Marilyn Monroe impression to try and keep them down but it wasn't working. Please don't call the cops. There was nothing I could do.

Quote of the day

Everyday I get an email from Runners World. It is called Daily Kick In The Butt. This morning when I opened the email it hit me right between the eyes.

"I think some of the most celebrated moments in human achievement should be those times when everything is going against a person and they are down in the dumps but they simply choose to get up. That's real greatness!" -Ryan Hall

This is Ryan Hall in Houston setting the U.S. record for 1/2 marathon.

Heights Fun Run

I have not done a 5K fun run in 2008 so tomorrow I will be in The Heights doing The Heights Fun Run.

Some of you may think that is an oxymoron: fun/run. It is a run and it is fun. The thing that I like about it is that it has the feel of a neighborhood party even if it starts at 730 a.m.

There is still time to sign up. For info, click here.

Hillary

I haven't given up on her yet. I still have my sign in the window.

I honestly wish things had worked out differently but it is what it is.

There are people out there who are not pleased that she didn't concede the other night. There are people out there who don't want her on the ticket with Obama.

I'm sure deals are being brokered that we won't know about for awhile and if you're naive enough to think that alliances and deal brokering only happen on Survivor, I've got some $4 bills I'd like to sell to you.

I am a bit perplexed as to why Caroline Kennedy is part of the search team. Don't get me wrong, I like Caroline. Being a quasi-conspiracy theorist, I have some thoughts about what has transpired and what is going to go down. Just remember something. Caroline's dad wasn't too thrilled about having LBJ on the ticket and LBJ was too thrilled about being on the ticket but they both knew it was a winning ticket. I'm just saying...

Clouds

The weather today is a bit odd. Still windy. Still hot. Dark clouds sometimes. Vice President Dick Cheney is in town. Coincidence? I'm just asking.

Hard Candy

For the past couple of weeks I have been sucking on Hard Candy and I think I'm addicted.

I can't stop listening to Give It 2 Me in the car or on the iPod nano. I think I've become one of those people that I despise...you know, they dance and sing at the gym and are oblivious to laughs and stares. THEN, the other morning I woke singing Incredible. And I find that every time I have to be somewhere, I start singing 4 Minutes (you know, like in four minutes I'm gonna save the world whenever I get to wherever I have to be?). WTF is wrong with me? LOL

Well, that sort of catches me up for the past few days. Catch up with you soon!

A short post.

This post has been inspired by two other bloggers and something that was in the gift bag from the fave magazine party last week. This is the Show 'n Tell that I referred to yesterday.

Awhile back Running For Gold commented that he had received some hits to his blog from people looking for information about masculine running shorts. Click on his name and you can read what was said.

Then, Blog My Runs did a post about running in long shorts just like Lance Armstrong. I'm not sure that he was prepared for the number of comments that he received. I chimed in and stated why I wear short running shorts when I run.

Let's face it folks, I'm short. I'm 5'8". It seems like most guys are taller than me. For me to run in long shorts is very uncomfortable. Let me do some 'splaining.

I have tried to run in long shorts but the problem that I encounter is that there is way too much material flying around my knees. With all that material flying around it makes me feel like Sister Bertrille from The Flying Nun. With the proper wind gust, I could take flight. Plus, the long shorts make me look like I belong to some cult that doesn't allow you to show anything above the knee.

There are some square-cut running shorts that I have but those give me a wedgie in the front and the back. Talk about uncomfortable.

Now, I will say that I do wear the longer shorts sometimes when I'm walking The Calvinator or when I go to the gym to do weights. I don't wear them when I'm spinning because I'm afraid the extra material is going to get caught in the wheel plus the one time I wore a pair of long shorts I had a bunch of material flopping around my knees. And yes, I do wear biking shorts when I spin because they have the extra cushion in the ass.

So here are some photos of some of my shorts.

These are Calvinator walking shorts for first thing in the morning. I can throw them on with a t-shirt and off we go. They have pockets for the keys, poop bags, etc. They're also good cover-up shorts for the running shorts when I don't feel like walking into Kroger after a run and freezing off my kibbles and bit. See how far down on my leg they go!

They sort of remind me of Skorts. Remember those skirts/shorts that Units used to sell?

Next we have another pair of long shorts. It only has a small pocket; big enough for the nano. They're just a bit shorter than the previous pair. I wear these to workout in.

This is another pair that I workout in. They're just a bit shorter than the previous pair. Small inside key pocket.

I can run in these but they cause a wedgie in the front and the back so I normally wear them to the gym if I'm going to do an eliptical machine. Small inside key pocket.

This is the normal size shorts that I run in. OK. Compare them to the long shorts and you can see how short I am and why I like the shorter shorts. No wedgies. No extra material flying around my knees. Very comfortable. Small key pocket inside both.

I do have some wild patterned shorts and so to continue the fashion show, here ya go.

First is this pair. When I run in these I don't even feel them. They don't squish my love handles and the sweat runs right off of them so they don't get all wet and sticky. Funny thing. runnerOne has the same pair and one morning when we went running we showed up both wearing them. Talk about looking like a pair of Twinkies. OK...maybe a Ding Dong a Ho-Ho.

Then we have this pair. Wild but subtle.

And then we have these. I will only wear these at twilight or pre-dawn. It's hard to miss me in the dark. Uh...plus they become a bit transparent when they get wet with sweat.

I bought this pair several years ago and I have never worn them. I guess I was thinking that if I ever had to run in Iraq, they would come in handy. And, as of right now I have no plans to go to Iraq.

Now, back to what was in the gift bag from the party. There was a candle, some soap, some vodka and a pair of shorts(?). A VERY small pair of shorts. Just so you know how small they are, I put them against a pair of my short Puma shorts. Are you ready to see them?

I know of one or two people who MIGHT be able to wear these by their pool. I seriously doubt that I could get them past my calves.

So that is today's fashion show. I'm invited to the first pool party of the season tomorrow and I need to decide which pair of swimtrunks to wear. I have them in varying lengths. ;-)