Bodger wishes you all a “Happy Friday” before your three-day weekends!
(I covered up the boyfriend’s nipple–Censorship, yo!)
What are you doing this weekend? Any fun plans?
-
Archives
-
Meta
Chocolate or poop?!?
If you don’t know what the title of this post is referencing, click here.
As part of Half Training Plan: Week 1, I ran a short tempo today. Unfortunately, the weather as sub-optimal for outdoor running, so I headed to the treadmill for five miles of fun. Here’s what it looked like:
- 1-mile warm-up – 10:31
- 3 miles at 8:54 pace
- 1-mile cool-down – 10:00
The boyfriend and I also booked our accommodations for the weekend of the race. Having always bypassed Indianapolis on our drives to and from Virginia, I’m excited to run all over the city.
I ran out of saran wrap today, so Bodger was very excited to play with the empty tube.
When he puts his mouth around one end of the tube, it amplifies the sound of his already noisy breathing. It’s quite amusing.
Look at his tongue, lolling out of his mouth. He’s a very special doggie.
Nom nom nom!
After baking a large batch of brownies and sitting down to do my homework, I noticed that I had dried batter caked all over my pants:
However, because studying rhythmic contrasts brings out my inner five-year-old, I told the boyfriend that I had pooped on myself:
(He didn’t believe me because the stains were only on the front of my shorts. Guys know their excrement facts, I guess.)
Posted in Frenchie, Half Marathon training, running, silliness
8 Comments
Not to be dramatic…
…but today, I feel like this:
Tonight, I watched the airing of the PBS POV Special Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy. It was pretty hard to watch at times, and, I’m not going to lie, I cried more than a few times.
Korean time!
안녕하세요.
저는 Mica입니다.
대학원생이에요.
What languages have you studied?
Posted in Korean language, adoption, being a better Korean
7 Comments
Would you date me…
…if I ate like this in public?
(I ganked this photo from Facebook. New friend Ryan took it.)
Today began the first day of Half Marathon training for the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon on November 6th, 2010. My plan (an amalgam of various Runner’s World programs, rearranged to suit my schedule) called for an easy run.
As I couldn’t fit a run in until the afternoon, it was in the mid-80′s with a heat index of 90º by the time I got outside. To make this run “easy,” I started doing run-walking. By the end, I was able to finish without walking, so I am pleased.
- 10:58
- 10:31
- 9:52
- 9:12 (Maybe this mile was a little harder than “easy”…)
Posted in silliness
5 Comments
I eat too much on the weekends.
I took advantage of yesterday’s cooler temperatures and banged out an 11-mile run. I’m not running that many miles each week, but I feel okay about my base mileage. Half Marathon training starts tomorrow. Whee, sub-2!
Here are my splits from yesterday’s long run:
- 10:39
- 10:06
- 10:00
- 10:08
- 9:50
- 9:56
- 10:19 (Garmin didn’t auto-pause.)
- 9:40
- 9:50
- 9:49
- 9:47
I’ve learned that it takes me legs a few miles to get into the groove of things. Almost every run has negative splits. This means I don’t go out too fast, which is good. However, I want to use my natural “running strategy” to my advantage for the rare occasions that I decide to race. Obviously, slow warm-up doesn’t work from 5Ks.
In the afternoon, I attended the local Sweet Corn Festival (Don’t laugh!) with people from my new department. It is Midwestern “fun” in all its glory.
You can buy butter-drenched, mediocre sweet corn.
…Then you can made sad attempts to wipe the grease off of…everything.
If you’re not excited about it yet, there are scientologists, chomping at the bit to convert you:
In the evening, we attended a housewarming fête at Brian’s new house. As usual, there was a gregarious gauntlet of people standing around the kitchen:
I baked a peanut butter fudge cake (Recipe linked.) for the evening. It involved dense chocolate cake, covered in peanut butter and a layer of thick chocolate frosting.
It was intensely chocolate-y and rich, but I think we all felt a little sick after eating huge slices. (It didn’t help that we had all eaten Dan’s spinach dip and Sarah’s brownies beforehand.)
I’m not sure why Rick posed in this fashion, but I think it sums up the feeling of my distended, post-cake stomach.
The evening ended with Cooler Ranch Doritoes (EWWWW! I hate!) and a demonstration of fist-pumping by Sean, who recently returned from a semester in Paris.
This morning, after a cathartic run and strength workout, I made a very Korean lunch:
Bibim guksu (비빔국수) is a cold noodle dish with soba, spicy sauce (pepper paste, sweetener, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, etc.), and a variety of toppings. Today, I used chopped lettuce, cucumber, carrot, and hard-boiled egg.
It was pretty delicious. I felt very Korean, enough so that I had to whip out a miniature flag.
Time to grade!
Do your weekends include a lot of eating? I’m really trying to work on not eating until I feel gross. It’s not a very pleasant feeling.
Posted in baking, being a better Korean, food, friends, running
12 Comments
New and old faces.
Well, today concluded my first full week of Fall Semester 2010. I am so far from “getting the hang of it”–it feels like I’ve started grad school all over again…and I’ve been here for two years already! I don’t know how the actual new TAs’ heads aren’t exploding.
Lena’s knee has put her out of commission for awhile, so we haven’t been doing much running lately. Fortunately, she was enthusiastic about meeting up for a beverage-and-work date at the local coffee shop. Actually, this photo makes it look like she hated every second of my presence, but really, I just caught her off guard.
Later, the boyfriend and I attended a cookout for students in the Linguistics department. I want to make friends with the people in my new program. Here are some new friends:
(Jin is Korean and offered to translate for me.)
I ate a hot dog that was fresh off of the grill. Holy crap. It was hot. I burned my mouth. 
Look who else showed up! Chris from the French department. I didn’t see his mug all summer, so it was good to catch up with him too.
Though I may come across as having a very outgoing and social personality on my blog, I actually sit out on a lot of social activities. Since so much socializing in college revolved around drinking, I never got used to going out. I don’t like alcohol, and being in situations that revolve around drinking makes me somewhat uncomfortable. I don’t have a moral issue with it. I just don’t enjoy it, so I don’t do it.
A few of the girls in the program want to get together to go out and show Jin some American drinking games. They invited me, but I feel somewhat awkward since (1) I don’t know drinking games and (2) I don’t like to drink. Nevertheless, I really don’t want to be the one who stays home all the time, as was often the case in the French department. Really, I just need to get over my discomfort and hang out with people more often because I’m sure they are all quite fun.
If you’re a non-drinker, what do you do when you’re invited to social drinking events? Usually, if we’re going to a bar, I just eat peanuts and drink water. (Really, I think Kim is the only one who understands what I’m talking about here.)
Ha, now that I’ve written this, my friends will probably see and stop inviting me to anything ever again. I sound like the least fun 20-something. Ever.
Posted in friends
11 Comments
Wednesday haikus
Semester: Day Three.
Busy learning AND teaching.
It gets better, right?
I went to the gym
to do an early workout
Caught up with Liz B. 
When I’m not working,
I go into the kitchen
to snack on some kim (김).
[Kim is dried, roasted seaweed.]
Although I’m busy,
I can always find time for
Bodger photo shoots.
Posted in Frenchie, being a better Korean, food
7 Comments
Some Pictures of Omma
Omma gave me these during our meeting. I scanned them awhile ago, but I was waiting for the right time to share them on the blog.
(On the right.)
This is the only one in which I can see the resemblance:
What do you think?
Here’s an amusing tidbit (maybe just amusing to my American sensibilities) from her last e-mail: “In Korea, there is an old saying that if a woman is a good cook, she will never get dumped by her husband. I’m glad that you can cook well.“
Posted in adoption, family
13 Comments
Fall semester kick-off.
This morning, I dragged myself hopped right out of bed and convinced myself to go for a three-mile run. Fortunately, the weather was cool, and my legs felt surprisingly good. I managed to drop the pace after the first mile and ended up with these splits:
- 10:10
- 8:47
- 8:19
Wheeee! A speedy run was the perfect prelude to my first day of classes.
Korean was disappointingly full and crowded. However, look what I can do:
(Practice writing Korean consonants…I’ll get corrected tomorrow.)
I start teaching tomorrow. How exciting!
Posted in Korean language, being a better Korean, classes, running
2 Comments
Last day of freedom
Though I got out the door kind of late this morning, I managed to pound out a successful 10-mile run.
- 10:37
- 10:14
- 10:30
- 10:08
- 10:04
- 10:05
- 9:51
- 10:00
- 9:52
- 9:47
Not too shabby, considering that I only planned to survive five. Nothing makes you feel accomplished like a Sunday long run.
Later, I added to my sense of accomplishment with a homemade pizza pie:
My half had cherry tomatoes, while the boyfriend continued to astound me with his metabolic feats of pepperoni consumption.
I am really proud of my pizza-making abilities now. I can only make one kind of crust (thick and crusty), and my toppings are kind of boring, but I think it’s delicious! Plus, it is cheaper and (I hope) healthier than gross delivery pizza.
Just call me Italian Pizza Chef Mica:
Okay, the semester starts tomorrow morning. First day of introductory Korean, whee! (And…phonology, which I still can’t define.)
I hope to kick tomorrow morning off with a bang short and sweet run, but if I lay in bed and whine about getting up, I won’t be too hard on myself.
Posted in baking, food, running
11 Comments