Swift Photo

I had the privilege of being photographed by a very talented local photographer today. The photo will be used in our Spokane Swift calendar for 2011. I don't like getting "running" pictures done because I always look so goofy running, but this was fun.  Thankfully, the weather cooperated long enough for the shoot which took about 30 minutes. It had been raining off an on all day and the night before we had a huge thunder/lightening storm.  With the break in the rain, the sky was still pretty dark, but you can't even tell in the photo.  I like how the trees look so green; you can tell that spring is finally here. :)

This photo was taken on Manito Blvd. If you click on it, it will enlarge.

Jed, the photographer has done some incredible work. Check out his website at http://www.jedconklin.com/

Ta Da!--13 days!

I finished my scarf in just 13 days! My goal by the end of day 14 was to have 45 inches, but I had 62 inches as of last night (Saturday) at 10PM. I only needed 60 inches, but went a tad overboard. :) Surprisingly, I am actually getting pretty good at it! In the beginning it took F-O-R-E-V-E-R for me to knit a couple of rows; at the end of 13 days I am able to knit 2 rows in about 1 minute. My mom is much faster, but I am slightly impressed with my skills. :)

The whole experience was quite interesting. Maisy got a hold of my scarf TWICE and ruined one ball of yarn which resulted in a slight panic and mad dash to JoAnn's at 8:45PM. The second time she got a hold of it the little stinker jumped up into Cam's chair at the table and grabbed it off of the table. This time, lucky for her, I was able to untangle the yarn. She is also very lucky that she didn't chew or undo any of my work. I might not have been so forgiving.....

The first week I made some common errors and found that it is much harder for me to fix an error than it is to make one. I realized that I may have finished my scarf in 12 days if I hadn't had to undo about 5 or so inches from it in the first week. I may have dropped a stich or two, but you can't really tell so I am not concerned about it.

The best part about everything? I figured out how to finish the end of the scarf on my own thanks to the internet. :)

I am excited to start scarf number 2, but I am not in any rush to get it done. I have a chem test on Tuesday, a rough draft due in sociology, and a paper to write this week. It is also almost the end of spring quarter so I just need to concentrate on surving the wrath of finals week in one piece. :)

Windermere Marathon 5.15.10

What a day this has been! Paul and Brenda ran the Windermere Marathon this morning and I got to be the race crew for a change. It was fun! After shuttling them to the starting line in Post Falls I followed them along the course to cheer for them, shout words of wisdom (looking good!, good job!, all down hill from here!, keep it up! etc.) and take pictures. I ran to some fun spectators along the way, actually ran into them at the same spots along the course most of the time. Caught up with Cam along Upriver and lost my vocal cords somewhere between point A and point B. Even caught some sun, even though now my scalp hurts, my arms are scorched AND I look like Rudolph. *Awesome*.

Watching a marathon means more after having ran one because you truly know just how crappy at certain points they probably feel. There is nothing worse than hitting "the wall" and there is nothing worse then having someone tell you that "you are almost there" when you still have 10 plus miles to run. You are NOT almost there!!!!!

Given both the heat and course length mishap, Paul and Brenda both did absolutely amazing. I am so proud of both of them and super proud that Brenda accomplished running her first marathon. I was excited when Brenda wanted me to run the last part of the course with her. It was pretty cool! Did I mention that I am really super duper proud of her!?

Here are my pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tashamalcolm/WindermereMarathon51510?authkey=Gv1sRgCKjlkZzGkLepzQE#

Yard Project #2--COMPLETE!

I got home from my very long day on Monday and Cam had finished the tier project off of our patio. I was flabergasted that he got it done. It looks amazing (along with the amazing fence). Of course, he did mention to me that the flowerbed was mine and that I had to take care of it. Wonderful. I have such a green thumb (insert sarcasim here).

The girls playing in the dirt pile

Tia got to feel like a real dog and rolled around for a bit. Then once she was done she realized that princesses don't really partake in such activities. :)

Since Cam had done so much work, I felt kind of guilty (not really, maybe just a little) so I decided to do some weeding of the flower beds on Tuesday after class. I went to Freddy's to purchase a garden hoe and decided that the extra $6 spent for the long handle was much worth it (so I didn't have to bend over). After 2 hours of weeding and 3 blisters later, I decided to retire. What a day!

Backyard Project

Malcolm Yard Project 2010

We had a pretty bad windstorm this last Monday, May 3rd and part of our fence blew over/fell apart. We had been wanting to replace for a long time, but we knew it would be a huge undertaking. Hence, the delay in starting the project. With our fence starting to crumble, Cam finally decided to start the huge undertaking. The plus side is that Tia and Maisy hopefully won't be able to escape anymore.

Day 1, you can see where the fence is falling apart and where the girls can get out. It isn't the only spot they can get out, but this is the most visible one. Where the dirt is, used to be a mounded flower bed with a half dead apple tree. All gone now!!!

Day 1, Cam also decided to purchase some railroad ties to build some tiers off of our patio. He is using the dirt from the flower bed that you saw be the fence.

Tier Project

Day 2, Tearing down the fence! Yes, I assisted. :)

Mr. Malcolm working away.....

Pile of the fence that I made on the side of the house

Hello neighbors!

No more fence. Hopefully day 3 we will see some new fence. Wink, wink Cam. ;)

Didn't take any pictures on Day 3 (Saturday). Cam just put in the steele posts for the fence. It takes 24hrs for the cement to set so no fence yet. :)

Day 4 (Sunday), TA DA!!!!! It looks wonderful...Cam did an awesome job!!!!!

Side View

Day 4, Tier Project

Tier Project: A work in progress (notice the AWESOME fence in the background?????)

Scarf--Week 1 Down

I have been attempting to work on my scarf for at least 30 minutes everyday. Partially because I want to get it done; I don't like unfinished projects, and partially because I don't want to forget how to do it! My goal by the end of week 1 was 20 inches. My scarf at the end of week 1 was actually 26.5 inches. Yay me!

It is getting so long. :)

It started to get easier after Wednesday. I made mistakes both Monday and Tuesday that required me taking out almost 5 inches that I had knitted. Slightly, bummed about that. Friday though, was the super bummer. We had just gotten back from dinner and Cam needed help tearing down the fence in our backyard. I set my knitting in the middle of the coffee table. I was only outside about 30 minutes, but when I came back, my yarn was spread clear across the living room, around the coffee table and up over the couch. I was so MAD! Maisy is running through it and tugging on the yarn which made me even more upset. I finally got all of the yarn picked up, but after almost an hour of trying to untangle it, I deemed the yarn a lost cause. By this time it was only 8:30 so I drove up to JoAnn's to buy another bundle of yarn. I think what happened was that Tucker knocked the yarn off of the coffee table and then Maisy got a hold of it and decided to have some "fun". Grrrr. Since then I have luckily had no more mishaps. I guess my scarf will be longer than 60 inches now......*sigh* Might take me longer than expected. *sigh*

What happens when Maisy is naughty.

Goal for the 2nd week? 45 inches.

My Fair Lazy

I am so happy that the new Jen Lancaster book just came out. I LOVE her! She is hilarious. I laugh the whole time am reading one of her books. Cam just doesn't get it. :) I have never pre-ordered a book before in my life, but I did on this one. I must say that it was sold out at both Barnes & Noble bookstores in Spokane, but I aready had bought my copy online. Ha.

Jen writes about her life. She used to make 6 figures, but then the dot com bubble burst and she lost her job. She was on unemployment and working temp jobs before she became an author. All of her books are autobiographies based on her life.

If you are at all intrested in reading one of her books, you totally should. She has 4 books out previous to "My Fair Lazy". I recommend that you read them in order since she writes them as an autobiography.

Book #1 Bitter is the New Black; Book #2 Bright Lights, Big Ass; Book #3 Such a Pretty Fat; Book #3Pretty in Plaid. Her 6th book is due to be released in September 2010.

Jen's personal interests are (stolen from her Facebook; yes we are totally friends on Facebook): Fletch, Plaid, Lacoste, Ambien, Barbies, Sweating Chardonnay, Bret Michaels, Pit Bulls, Crazy Neighbors, Jordache Jeans, Chicago, Staggering Like a Muthafucking Ninja.

Jen's blog (I highly recommend you read just because she is hilarious): http://www.jennsylvania.com/

What a weekend; parents, bloomsday, knitting, rain......

My parents came to town this last weekend to visit for a couple of days. It was great to have them and I wished they could have stayed longer. My mom and I did some shopping on Saturday while Cam and my dad explored the auction yard for new equipment and did some stuff around the yard.

Bloomsday was okay, I wasn't really expecting much. My foot is still sore from Boston so I was more in run for the t-shirt at the end. :) I think that I will take some time off from running for a bit. Right now it just isn't very much fun anymore. I mean I will still run, just not compete for a while. Oh, and the t-shirt wasn't really worth it in the end, AGAIN. Maybe I should design the shirt for next year?????

I always forget how crazy the Bloomsday crowd is, luckily I didn't lose my parents in the sea of many people. My dad was wearing his OSU hat which is orange...kind of hard to miss even in a couple thousand people. Cam and Paul were dishing up delicious Papa Murphy's pizza for the Teen Challenge kids. It was nice to get a treat of pizza after my run. :)

My mom and I took the girls for a walk on one day. They had so much fun. My mom gave Tia a new nickname: Waddles. She does kind of waddle, poor thing! It doesn't matter how many carrots I feed her, how many walks I take her on, or how healthy of food I buy her; everything the poor girl eats goes straight to her hips.

My dad's big project (he can never rest, even when he is in Spokane!!!) was digging up literally every weed in our front yard. I didn't think he would get all of them, but then I looked out the front window and he was already almost done. Thanks dad! :)

While my mom was here she also taught me how to knit! Right now I am working on a teal blue scarf. So far I haven't messed up too bad. Today is only my second day and I have a tad over 8 inches! Only about 52 more inches left until my scarf is done. I sort of messed up today and panicked. I thought I would have to shelve it until I saw my mom again so that she could fix it. After putting it down for a couple of minutes I was able to fix my mistake only to pick up the wrong stitch so I was off for a couple of rows. *Sigh*. After I took out 3 more rows I was back on track. With all of my ooopsies today I could of had over 10 inches. Dang it!

My practice "scarf"

My mom and the girls :)

My babies :)

Practicing.....

.....and practicing....

.....and practicing some more.

At the end of day 2, I have a tad over 8 inches on my scarf. Only 52 or so more inches to go!!!!

I am kind of proud of myself.

Boston Marathon & Trip 2010

Boston was amazing and an experience of a lifetime. It was such a wonderful city with so many sites to see that you could never see all of them in the length of stay we had. Cam got to go to Fenway and we were able to catch 3 Red Sox games in just 2 days. The weather was terrible our first couple of days; mid 30s with rain. We got to take the Boston Duck Tours which pointed out most of the major historical sites, but they were all spaced so far apart, there wasn't enough time to trek to all of them. MIT and Harvard were pretty cool to visit, we both didn't feel much smarter after visiting them. :)
The marathon was an experience like none other. The crowd was so amazing. There were hundreds of thousands of people to cheer us all on, it was a pretty cool thing to be there for. Even though I hit the wall pretty early on (I was sort of expecting it....) it was still an amazing experience and feat and I loved every second of the pain I was in. :)

Here is a link to our gazillion photos that we took if you haven't seen them already......

http://picasaweb.google.com/tashamalcolm/Boston2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ-py9ab1oS-Gg#