Annual update?

Well, hopefully updates will be more frequent than that and I will use this as a launching point to actually write regularly, but clearly I can't be held to any sort of promise. Somehow, though, I am once again taken with the idea of documenting the passing days, so I might as well run with it while I have the inclination. I'm definitely not going to try to catch up on the past 2.5 years since I started sporadically posting, or even the past 16 months (!) since my last post--that seems like a recipe for failure...and I'm obviously already a little predisposed to failure anyway.

So for now, I'll stick to present-day life as I know it, so far as my aging brain/memory can recall.

As always, everything is a mixture of chaos and unmotivation and disorganization, but one thing that has been marking my days and keeping me grounded is my No Boundaries running group that I'm doing through Fleet Feet. It's this beginners' running program that introduces you to the basics of running and trains you for a 5K. I actually did the program last spring also, but had to miss a bunch of sessions (thereby not qualifying to get the awesome training jacket that you get if you go to 15 of the 20 sessions), so I decided to do it again. And I'm really not usually so much of a group training sort of girl, but I have to say that this program has been really great for me. I'm actually enjoying running, or at least the achievement of increasing my distance and my speed, and I've actually met some people that are really fun to hang out with. Today, one of the coaches (who is convinced--falsely--that I could run the whole 2.8 miles) made me skip my walk interval and run further than I've ever run before. I shot her many dirty looks, but to no avail--she pep-talked me and paced me the whole segment and showed me that I could readily do what my mind has been telling me that I can't. So even though I cursed her name the whole way, I am actually somewhat impressed with myself because of her. Thanks, Nancy! Good thing I have that to motivate me to go back out on Thursday for an even longer distance in the 99-degree heat.

As for knitting, I have been trying to plow my way through a few seemingly interminable projects. It's all these babies being born, combined with my short attention span. Makes for some long-term relationships with pastel blankets. But I did finally finish the Basil Blanket for Julia Loraine Tsai (born June 27, 2009):And the other blanket that I am in the middle of is a second, backup blanket for Parker. I never did post the photo of his completed blanket, so here it is:

The great thing is that apparently he really loves it and has to have it to sleep with every night. The less great thing is that I have to knit him another one. I mean, it's not really a bad thing--I can't think of anything more flattering and heart-warming than people not only appreciating what I knit them in the first place but then also wanting a second one of it! It's just an awful lot of garter stitch in a boucle yarn that I'm a bit weary of. But I do love having made something that crazy-cute Parker can't do without.

In the meanwhile, I did manage to knit Parker a birthday present, although I didn't manage to finish it until he was about 1 year + 3.5 months. Oops. Got caught in a bout of procrastination brought on by logistical difficulty in the assembly phase. But I am quite pleased with it now that it's done, and Ryan was duly impressed, giving much thanks and boosting my knitterly ego. Now that I think about it, I love knitting for the Davises--they are the most appreciative recipients ever. It helps that Ryan is a big bio-geek. Did I mention that the base-pairs on this knitted oligo are in the form of the codons that would transcribe into the RNA codons that would translate into the amino acids proline and aspartate, which can be abbreviated P-D (Parker's initials)? Total geekdom, I know, but if you're gonna knit a DNA toy for someone, are you gonna knit just random sequence? I don't think so.