Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Testing out the new HP TouchPad wireless keyboard

It's so much faster to type my thoughts with the wireless keyboard! Plus, I get the physicality of typing (loudly, as usual) on real keys. One of the nicest features is being able to move the curser using the arrow keys. Makes re-reading and making corrections much less frustrating. Now, if I can only figure out how to turn off the auto-correct spelling feature...

Monday, October 31, 2011

Mean Green

After watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, I was inspired to try out the "Mean Green" juice. It's made from kale, celery, green apples, lemon, cucumber and ginger. I threw kale, apples, celery and a zucchini in my blender. The combination does not taste good. Although, putting it in the freezer for 20 minutes definitely helped the flavor. However, I still can't get over the ever present smell and taste of celery. My stomach seems okay so far; but the movie did give fair warning that this will clean a person out. Kudos to the people who can spend days living only on juiced fruits and veggies!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Run 4 the Water 2011

"Erin, where are you?" began my day at 5:34 am, or so my cell phone displayed. "It's 6:30!" I frantically jumped out of bed, changed clothes, forced in contacts and rolled my bike out the door. The adrenaline rush kept my legs pumping quickly, even in the 45 degree weather. As I pulled into RunTex, my cell rang again; and, my running buddy was jogging past in search of me. We squeezed into the crowd at the starting line as the Burundi national anthem played. Five minutes to spare as we listened to the Star Spangled Banner. Then, the announcer started us; and the surge forward made it's way back to us until we were jogging, walking, crossing the starting  line and beginning a 10  mile run through 1500 people.

Unlike our previous weekend's experience with the minimal support on the UT Cycling team's fundraising ride, we were impressed by the multiple water and Gatorade stops, the clearly signed mile markers (with LED timers), and the supportive people cheering us on. Run 4 the Water was very well sponsored (Keller Williams Realty) and staffed. Although the course was hilly in places (Exposition, Pecos and Scenic), the neighborhoods and scenery were gorgeous. We window shopped million dollar homes and reveled in the view of Lake Austin along Scenic.

Perhaps the best part of the run was finishing with a faster pace and overall time than any of our training runs!

Run 4 the Water is a yearly fundraising race by the non-profit The Gazelle Foundation used to provide clean drinking water in the African country of Burundi.   Run 4 the Water 2011

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

New HP TouchPad

definitely unique -- typing on a tablet. Somehow, I'm still a noisy typist! Tonight was spent learning how to overclock, work the Kindle app and download more apps than I will ever use. Now, it's time for some Kindle reading before heading to bed...