Day 55 = Running + "The Office"

Soooo happy I got to be outside today. The more I get into this workout regime, the more I miss the days I can't be outside. Albeit, I only ran around the block for 30 minutes after I watched "The Office" and ate a cheeseburger from Mighty Fine Burgers (my justification is it's "Friday" to me and I've been wanting to try them), but I very much enjoy the running/walking days more than being forced to stay inside and do some reps with resistance bands. But I am determined, and I keep on truckin'.

Today is my Friday because tomorrow I'm flying to Arkansas to surprise my British stepfather, Richard. Tonight, his brother and sister-in-law flew in from England and he got the surprise of his life! Tomorrow, Richard's nephew and his girlfriend are flying in from Enlgand as another surprise. It's not his birthday, but he is a very much loved, respected and well-liked person in my inner circle of trust and he's like a father to me. He's been in my life for most of my life. We are all excited about surprising him. Even though he loves and married my American mother and moved to the US in 1993 to be with her (after we all lived in England with him), it must be hard to live in a foreign country away from family for so long. My parents are talking about retiring and moving to England. If they go, I go. Until tomorrow, cheers, mates!

Day 54 = Resistance Bands + Barack Obama

I wish I had started my workouts on January 20 so that I could say I've worked out every day that Obama's been in office. I'd have 100 days behind me by now.

I worked late tonight and got home around 7:30. Had to compile notes and reports about all those breakout sessions I've been attending the last two days at the Bazaarvoice Social Community Summit.

Walking really is more high impact that I have given it credit for. I'm more sore than I anticipated. I need a personal stretch person to go with my personal trainer. While I'm at it, I need a personal shopper - especially someone who'll buy my jeans. I'm a disaster at selecting jeans. Stacy London, please come help me. So to give my legs, hips, butt and lower back a break, I just used my resistance bands and core ball tonight.

Day 53 = Walking + Trudy's

OMG. I wondered if this would ever happen. I logged over 11,200 steps today! Maybe you've heard of the 10,000 steps a day challenge? Well, I'm not really going for that, but the BodyBugg thinks I should. Every day so far, it's been showing me with graphs and charts just how much I fail to meet that goal. Finally, today I can say, "Suck it, BodyBugg. I did it!" I feel like a superstar.

I've been thinking of what I can do to get in more steps everyday, like volunteer as a tour guide or become a personal chef. According to my charts, I get in most of my steps in the morning when I'm getting dressed, when I walk from my car to the building, when I get up in the middle of the day to grab lunch, when I walk from the building to my car and then at home when I go for a walk. It's a little sad to see how sedentary that looks in bar chart format. But today, I was at an offsite meeting going from breakout session to breakout session. Lots of steps. Then I came home (after a Ciro's Special and a margarita at Trudy's with Alan and Theresa) and walked for about an hour. I do a lot of walking. That's a workout, you know.

Oh, and before I gloat too much about my superstar status, I got this blog from my running coach. Now this guy is a real rock star. http://secker.blogspot.com/ He's been running for 64 days in a row.

Day 52 = Gym + 24 Hour Fitness

I'm still wearing the BodyBugg. It's telling me when I have REM sleep (about twice a night) and how much I kick in my sleep. The other night, I took a Benadryl at bedtime and the charts were all over the place. One of these days, I am going to have to get serious about the other part that the BodyBugg tracks: calories.

The weather has been crazy this month. Well, not so much crazy as annoying. Texas gets about 300 days of sunshine a year, and I guess April is not part of the plan this year. It's been windy and rainy. And my sprinklers have no idea about that last part. Since it's been so rainy, I went to the gym tonight to work out, to discuss my BodyBugg and to interview a personal trainer. Hope referred me to her trainer who will come to my house, which sounds perfect and almost justifiable since it's so hard to find a good trainer who is consistent. I met a gym trainer tonight, but something tells me I don't think I can trust her to whip me into shape. I don't care if she has a degree in nutrition or has been a personal trainer for two years. If I can see between your legs when you're standing with your feet together, you do not know what it's like to be me.

Day 51 = Running + Town Lake

Last night, I had the pleasure of crashing at Hope's house. This was due to a planned girls' night out at a Texas honkytonk. Just for tickles and grins. And beers. And shots. And two-steppin. And people watching, which was not scarce.

Hope's kids slept until 8:30 and didn't even try to wake their "Feather." Hope made breakfast and when her husband headed out for an errand, I went on my way, too. Straight to Town Lake. I ran the 3-mile loop. It was another beautiful day.

Day 50 = Running + Special Olympics

Saturday started way too early. I managed to make it out to the site of the area games of the Special Olympics of Central Texas by about 7:30 am and was chosen to work with the tennis players. There was some miscommunication about the use of the tennis courts so we had to ask some other people to leave. Maybe it was early in the morning and maybe they were genuinely frustrated, but they directed their nasty remarks to the woman who was coordinating the tennis matches, and it was uncalled for and not her fault. I stepped in and commented about how their attitude was unnecessary and they just needed to calm down; she didn't deserve that treatment. For a minute, I thought the confrontation was going to escalate even more. I was absolutely stunned at how inconsiderate these two outsider men were and how much they lacked compassion. A phone call confirmed that the Special Olympics did, in fact, have the courts for that day and the men left, but they didn't even apologize. Heartless. I noticed the one with the bleach-blonde tips driving away in his early 90s model Corvette.

My duties consisted of greeting the athletes and helping them warm up. I also took score for each athlete. There were a couple of athletes who actually played in match play. One of them, Rick, showed off his Michael Jackson moonwalk across the court and his picture with Andy Roddick. (Rick claimed Andy is almost as good as he is.) Around 1 pm, I took the last group of athletes to the award tent and watched a little bit of the awards ceremony. As I walked to my car, I watched some relay races.

When I got home, I walked and ran around my neighborhood. Then I took a nap. It was a good day.

Day 49 = Walking + PMS

Today is the first day that I've come home and not been super excited about my workout. It's a gloomy day. I just feel irritable. I'm attributing my mood to PMS, which I have not been bothered by for a good 22-1/2 years until the last few months. Each month, my PMS mood varies. One month, I want to claw your eyes out. The next month, I cry if I have to wait too long at Starbucks. I almost cried during a meeting this morning because I couldn't get the dial-in number to work. There must be some clock in my body saying "time to change the hormones." Hormones are pretty much responsible for the world, by the way. The good decisions and the bad ones. Maybe I should get some of those bio-identicals.

I'm going to get my evening walk out of the way so I can come home and spend a quiet Friday night on the couch watching a movie, eating some cheese and drinking red wine. Not too much, though, because I have to get up early to volunteer for the spring games of the Special Olympics of Texas. It's one of my favorite charities, and it's such a privilege to be part of it. I'm sure my mood will change when I see all the athletes giving their 110%.

Day 48 = Walking + Stuff You Missed in History Class

The BodyBugg made me raise an eyebrow tonight. I plugged it in and viewed how many steps I'd taken because I've been wearing it since about 11:30pm last night. Somewhere around 1 am, I fell asleep. But at 3am, I took three steps. I know that I kick in my sleep, and my BodyBugg is proving it, which is almost as insulting as everyone else who has shared this same quaint fact with me. BodyBugg said I was even more active on Tuesday night, taking about a dozen steps during the night.

Anyway, BodyBugg said I'd only taken about 3,500 steps today. It really shows spike in burned calories in the morning when I get ready and when I walk up stairs at work or when I get up from my desk in the middle of the day to get lunch. It's basically a graphical report of how sedentary my life is.

I had been thinking of doing some yoga or pilates tonight, since I worked until about 8pm and figured it was too late to walk. But when I saw that BodyBugg was basically calling me a loser at walking, I laced up my Brooks and headed out. It was a dark and windy night already, and it felt lovely and a bit scary as I worked my way up to 5,736 steps. It gave me the opportunity to catch up on some podcasts. I usually listen to them during my morning commute. Right now, I'm hooked on "Stuff You Missed in History Class" and it comes from the people who have been bringing you "How Stuff Works" for years. I want to write for these people, and it turns out they do entertain submissions. I'm behind on the series, and right now they're talking about the 2008 election. I guess my takeaway from tonight was that Nixon not only lost the election due to his washed out appearance on TV during the first televised debate, but his washed-out appearance was due to a staph infection. Thought you'd like to know.

Day 47 = Resistance Bands + "Family Guy"

Resistance bands and sit-ups while I watched television. It's all I had the time and energy to do after coming home late tonight. I had a dinner date with a guy at Perla's, and it went longer than I intended. I highly recommend Perla's, and I am at least pleased that the conversation with my dinner companion was good. At home, I turned on an episode of "Family Guy" from hulu.com. I missed last night's episode of "LOST" and would have rather watched that, but it hadn't been posted yet.

So here I am trying to be more productive because I gave up cable (and I learned that my date for the night also did not believe in cable television) and I am still pre-occupied with watching television. All flavors of television are like crack.

I plugged in the BodyBugg (albeit, I did not wear it on my date), and I'd only burned about 1750 calories all day. I'm going to wear it all day tomorrow.

Day 46 = Walking + BodyBugg

I finally figured out how to use my new BodyBugg. Well, it is really due to my friend's help. Amy gave me this great little apparatus for my birthday. How sweet is that!? I've been toying with getting one for a while, but the older model's functionality did not justify its bulkiness. However, this new version is sleek. I'm wearing it now, and it's already calculating my body's biorhythms. It also calculates how many steps I take with its built-in pedometer. Now with my BodyBugg and Garmin Forerunner, I'm almost like the bionic woman. Almost. Ok, not so much.

I went for a 45-minute walk today in the 92 degree heat. April in Texas. I was just happy to get out and walk around the neighborhood on a Tuesday afternoon and enjoy one last day of re-charge before getting back in the office. The BodyBugg thinks I need to eat 1950 calories a day and burn 2450 calories a day. For years, I've had personal trainers, diet books, web sites, magazines, dietitians and physicians telling me I need to consume around 1200-1400 calories a day to lose weight, so let's see how accurate the BodyBugg is. I'm more interested in the stats it spits out. So far, I've burned 1524 calories and have eaten a whopping 1299 calories. Now, in my defense, I made homemade chicken-fried steak and gravy for a "going-away" lunch for Amy and her boyfriend today. I haven't made that meal in almost five years. That said, 80% of weight loss/gain/maintenance has to do with what you put in your mouth. So the BodyBugg can wait until tomorrow to get me back on track.

Day 45 = Running + Crawfish

This is the half-way mark. I am actually not surprised I've made it this far, although some people who know about this experiment seem to believe that it is quite an accomplishment. I can honestly say that at this point, I can count on one hand the number of workouts that I've had that have been less than mediocre. For the most part, I'm pretty proud of these workouts. On Friday, my clothes seemed remarkably looser, so even if the scale is an evil liar, some inches are shrinking.

Today, Amy and Kerry are having an impromptu dance party in my living room with wine at 3 in the afternoon. Sounds fantastic! They are thrilled that I showed them how to hook up their laptop to my television so they can play iTunes. But as they say in show business: the show must go on. And by show, I mean my workouts. I need this time today. I am frustrated that I can't get my cute little BodyBugg to work, so Amy said she'd fix it for me (and she did by simply plugging it into another USB port on my laptop; duh).

For my workout this afternoon, not only did I enjoy my time off from work on a Monday, I ran/walked for about 35 minutes and came back to the house with a new plan for me and my visitors: crawfish and then margaritas at the Hula Hut to watch the sunset.

Day 44 = Resistance Bands + Texas Wine and Food Fest

To date, this was the saddest workout. I think I did maybe two sets of three workouts with the resistance bands. It is something. And my friends are also trying to convince me that the walk from the car to the entrance and all around the Texas Food and Wine Festival was also a workout. OK. I will count that as part of my workout, too. And considering how this day started, the resistance bands are a real accomplishment.

The day almost didn't start. I could have used another four hours of sleep. Last night, we all went out to celebrate Amy's birthday, and the last thing I remember around 2:30 am was Amy saying, "we have to rally." Then Amy fell asleep in the chair and I went upstairs to go to bed. This morning, it felt like Amy's birthday last year revisited and the morning we took the trapeze lesson. I digress... We went to the Stubb's Gospel Brunch, followed by the festival and topped off with dinner at The Salt Lick. Meat. Sauce. Potatoes. Cheese grits. Wine. Mimosas. More meat. Food coma. Hulu. Bedtime. It was a good Sunday.

Day 43 = Walking + UT Campus

My friend Amy and her boyfriend Kerry flew in from Portland, Oregon, yesterday to visit me for Amy's birthday, which is today. They know all about my 90 Days/90 Workouts and agreed to walk around Town Lake this afternoon. It was a much-needed walk because we'd had brunch at Juan in a Million. Three of us had Don Juan breakfast tacos and none of us could finish them all. That is definitely one of the best deals in town. A huge plate of goodness that costs $3.60. That and you get a fabulous handshake when you enter and leave the place.

After walking around Town Lake, past the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue and the reggae fest that was going on all weekend, we drove over to Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium - home of the Texas Longhorns. After more walking around campus, we found ourselves staring straight up at the UT Tower. The campus is really beautiful, and I notice new landmarks about it on each visit. I've run through campus before but never noticed the beautiful fountain. And all the statues. We walked inside the UT Tower to use the facilities, and it's so old school. Even the public restroom stalls are made of marble. So quaint. As we walked out, Amy mentioned there are probably a lot of ghosts roaming that building. Yeah. Probably. But that is another blog.

Day 42 = Walking + Morning Constitutionals

This morning I woke up and took one of those morning constitutionals that one typically sees a retiree taking around the neighborhood (not to be confused with the Urban Dictionary definition for this). I see these people on my way to work sometimes and think, "I wish I could just get up and enjoy a walk in the morning." Of course, my fantasy would continue on with me sitting on the couch with coffee and watching Ellen, but I'm 35 and still in my prime working-for-the-man years. Other than work that is keeping me from enjoying this morning time, I like to sleep as late as possible - sometimes to the point that I come to work with my hair rolled in curls, which really just means that I didn't want to wake up in time to wash it because that process would take longer than to roll day-old clean hair.

I walked through another little route this morning that I've never visited before. Naturally, I saw at least two grandmothers walking on their constitutionals. We waved and said good morning. Maybe I can meet some new friends on another morning constitutional. Or just wander around listening to podcasts, smelling roses and letting other people envy me as they see me on their way to the office.

Day 41 = Resistance Bands + House Cleaning

Tonight was probably the weakest workout I've had so far. I did actually work out, but while I worked out, I did also do a lot of house cleaning. Vacuuming stairs should be an Olympic sport. I hate to vacuum my stairs. I really do try to keep my house clean, but I've got Saltillo tile covering the first floor and it's hard to eyeball and say, "yeah, that's dirty," because it's so deceiving. I could definitely use a fairy godmother to clean my house. Or a maid. Or a 1950s housewife. Or become one.

I'm cleaning because my good friend Amy and her boyfriend are coming all the way from Portland, Oregon, to see me. And we intend on eating and drinking all weekend. But I intend on staying faithful to my workouts. Committing to better eating will come post-visit. So tonight, my aforementioned "weak" workout was basically a few reps with the resistance bands. That set of bands is one of my favorite purchases from the Target dollar aisle. Love those things!

Day 40 = Yoga + Skype

Wow - I'm almost half way to 90 days. I've been thinking about what I'm going to do at the end of my 90 days, and I think I'm going to do 90 days/90 'two-a-day' workouts. Yeah, I'm gonna take it to another level. I think I can do it. Tonight, as I was doing my yoga workout, I envisioned myself getting up every morning and doing yoga. It was a rude awakening to realize just how physically inflexible I am. I used to be so much more flexible. What happened?

I streamed the "10 Minute Solution: Yoga" DVD from Netflix. I actually only did the first 10 minutes because not every day has to be balls to the wall. I had the DVD on pause when I was in my guest bathroom setting out soaps and heard this weird noise. At first, I thought that Netflix had somehow timed out and was playing the yoga DVD without me. I went to my laptop and it was my friend Beth calling me on Skype from her home in Los Angeles. My first Skype call! It sounded more clear than my cell phone, and it was pretty cool. I could kick myself for not ordering my laptop with a built-in webcam, so now I have to buy one. In any case, the Skype call was pretty cool other than the fact that Skype kept dropping the call every three and a half minutes. Do I have to be Oprah to get unlimited minutes on Skype?

Day 39 = Running + Scents

Today I decided to most definitely leave the office early. And by early, I mean before 6 pm. Mission accomplished. I couldn't wait to get out and run or walk -- whatever my legs decided to do. The point is to just get up and do it. My neighborhood has plenty of route options, and I took one today that I hadn't visited in a while -- probably not since last summer. On today's run, I listened to a podcast about why women wear perfume and it talked about how women use scent more than men to weed out the most viable mates for reproduction. Maybe I should hone my sense of smell in order to get better dates. It is, after all, the universal way for dogs to say hello. And babies develop their sense of smell almost immediately in order to remember their moms.

I am finding that every day I am looking forward to my workout, especially workouts that involve running or walking outside. Speaking of smelling, I like the smells I experience on a run. Like who's cooking hamburgers. And wondering what that yummy smell is coming from a restaurant. Or when another runner passes by and smelling their lingering scent that I end up running through. Although that last smell can be pretty rank sometimes.

I love the way the weather is at this time of year, and I'm glad to be able to take advantage of it. Even though saying it is really not enough, I want to say it again anyway: there is something to be said about a daily workout. It clears my mind, helps me focus, and I'm just overall a happier person. That and I burned over 300 calories on today's workout.

Day 38 = Pilates + Netflix

Tonight, I really wanted to come home after work and take a nice walk around the neighborhood and chill out to some tunes and just enjoy the outdoors. But alas, it was Monday. My day started at 5 am to take a 6:55 am flight out of Little Rock where I'd spent the weekend with family. On my way to work, an idiot ran into the passenger side of my car and screwed that up, then I spent the better part of the day in meetings. I was at work until 7 pm until I finished a report. So by the time I stopped by Whole Foods to get some comfort food (no judgement), it was just not feasible to take that walk. I actually said, "it's not feasible," out loud.

Anyway - tonight I got on Netflix and plugged my laptop up to my 42" flat screen and did the first two workouts (about 20 minutes) of the "10 Minute Solution: Rapid Results Pilates." It was a decent workout for the time I decided to allot to my workout tonight. When I have more time, I'll definitely do it again. It made me realize how much I need to work on my balance.

Day 37 = Resistance Bands + Easter

Today was Easter, and I made two homemade key lime pies. I had been waiting for this for weeks. I have been looking forward to spending Easter with family and friends I hadn't seen in years, including meeting a new friend, Lauren, who is just about 10 weeks old. She was fussy so we were walking around when her mom snapped this pic of us.

That night, after a glass of wine and a nap in the chair, I still had to do my workout. I brought my resistance bands (super easy to pack while traveling), and I chose to focus on my upper body. Holding a baby requires strength, I learned.

My stepfather, Richard, showed me some new ways to use the bands. So in addition to my bicep curls, tricep moves and lat pulls, Richard showed me a variation for my biceps (hold the bands with fists facing each other and curl up); chest press (put the longer band around the chair while pulling them around in front of my chest); and some kind of push up while sitting in the floor on the band and pushing up. My arms are sore a little today and not sure if it was the resistance bands or the infant. It was worth holding that cute baby, though!

Day 36 = Cardioke + Cable Television

This morning, I was hoping to go for a walk, but it's been raining all day here in North Little Rock, Arkanas. I'm here visiting my parents, brother and other family and friends. Luckily, my mom has an exercise bike. However, it requires batteries and the parents are fresh out of the D size. And I really don't want to know why they're out. They are, after all, empty nesters.

Instead, I decided to take advantage of cable television (since I gave up mine in an effort to "be more productive"). Their cable company offers Exercise TV On Demand, so after deliberating over all the options, I chose Billy Blanks, Jr's "Cardioke," since I am a pretty big fan of real-life karaoke.

I was pleasantly surprised at how Billy, Jr. kept me entertained for the next 26 minutes - and helped me burn at least 100 calories. I was wearing my Polar heart monitor just to see how effective Cardioke really is. Doing jumping jacks while singing "don't cha wish your girlfriend was raw like me" really made me work up a sweat. Lookout Pussycat Dolls, you've got some competition.

Day 35 = Walking + Travel

Morning walks are so wonderful. Just when I think I've given so much love to running, a morning walk comes out of nowhere and blows me away. The solitude. The dew. The looks on drivers' faces who have to go to work a lot earlier than me. I took great pleasure in my 30-minute walk this morning because I know I won't be working out tonight, as I'm flying to Little Rock to visit family for Easter weekend.

And just when I think the morning can't get better, my co-worker brought Polkadots cupcakes to work. Yum. I sampled them all: red velvet, carrot, chocolate and vanilla. It really is the little things in life (like cupcakes) that put a big ol' fat smile on my face.

In other news, today would have been my father's 62nd birthday. Hope you're eating cupcakes in heaven, Daddy!

Day 34 = Running + Must See TV

Thursday night. Missing my DVR a little bit. But I guess overall, I'm not really missing cable so much. I'm really glad I got rid of that mess. Well, it's not all awful. I will miss seeing the next season of "Project Runway" in real time next season.

So when I came home from a 4-mile run, I had just missed the 7 pm episode of "The Office." Love that show! Love me some Thursday night "must see TV" and of course love me some Wednesday night LOST.

But I loved my run tonight. Loving that I'm getting so addicted.

Day 33 = Running + My Neighborhood

Beautiful night tonight for a run/walk in the neighborhood. My neighborhood has sidewalks and established trees and manicured lawns and schools and playgrounds and deer and other friendly walkers. And a shaved ice stand that gives me shaved ice when I walk up and beg for it on a hot day, and by beg for it, I mean look like I'm about to pass out. Sometimes I bring a couple of dollars with me and buy lottery tickets at the corner store. Sometimes I run across Mopac to the central part of Austin and run by some other scenery.

I have a lot of routes. I know how far 3 miles is from my driveway and so I might have a little 5k at my house for my marathon group (you know, as a social activity). Sometimes I start out on a run or a walk and I normally have no idea where I'll end up but oftentimes I find myself running that 3-mile route. I can pretty much do it in my sleep by now. There's a church on this route and a couple of nights a week I can hear people playing bagpipes in there.

When I bought my house, it was all about investing in location. I was right.

Day 32 = Running + AMG Guy

NOTE: This blog is being written in the future (er, I'm retro-writing blogs that I didn't get to write in the past).

Today I had another first date from another match.com guy. We met for lunch at NoRTH in the Domain. I won't use his real name, but his match.com handle utilizes the kind of car he drives, which is the picture here (good recon, huh) and the MSRP is something like $197,000. For the purpose of this blog, I'll call him "AMG." By the way, I did not put all this together until after the date when he walked me to his car and sent me on my way to my car (no, he didn't even walk me to my car).

AMG was waiting for me at the restaurant. He looked like his picture. He'd made a reservation, which isn't really necessary for lunch, but that place does get busy and I am ALWAYS appreciative when a guy has a plan of action. It tells me he is motivated enough to give a shit -- well, at least it's a good start. Over lunch, we had a good conversation. Turns out we both work for the same company, and going on a date with someone who works at my company was bound to happen since they employ so many people in this here Austin metro area. The conversation was going well, and AMG commented on how he normally has bad dates and that this one was going surprisingly well. He mentioned he wanted to see me again. I thought I'd like to see him, too. He seemed nice enough. Normally, it is a good sign when a guys asks you out on the next date while you're in the middle of the current date, but people, this isn't my first rodeo. I will believe it when I see it.

After lunch, we walked down the sidewalk and stopped by a car. Then it dawned on me where I'd seen AMG before. It's a type of Mercedes. AMG gave me a hug and we said goodbye. He said he'd call me. When I got back to work, I Googled the car he drove because I wanted to know what was so great about it that would make him such a lover of such fine things. I mean, I know guys like cars, and the nicer the car sometimes just means they have more to compensate for. So of course it got me thinking about him... and reconsidering. I'm a simple girl and happy to drive a gently used, well-kept 2004 Toyota 4Runner that is almost paid for (and proud of that!), so I don't know if a guy who drives a car that costs more than my salary is really a good fit. Is that bad?

Needless to say, I did not get a call from AMG. I did, however, get an email from him about two weeks later saying he's sorry he didn't call and that he'd had pneumonia and been in the hospital and wanted to know if I wanted to meet up again. Well, mom always says to give the benefit of the doubt (but Amy S. says move on), so I said yes. But again, no response. I'm sure he's much happier fucking his car anyway.

In any case, I continued my pursuit of 90 workouts in 90 days and went on a long-ish 5.5 mile run after work.

Day 31 = Running + Reading for the Blind

Monday funday. Whatever. I'm still on my philanthropic kick and tonight I'm going to an orientation about being a reader for the blind.

I have some experience with this, just so you know. My job involves running a marketing program for Microsoft, and my Microsoft manager is legally blind. She worked in PR before she joined Microsoft, and on a regular basis, she amazes me and my boss. When I send her web site mockups to review, she sends me feedback. She uses Microsoft's text-to-voice feature to check emails and documents. She is on top of the messaging for the program. She's a professional. She lives in a four-story home and gets herself to and from work every day. Her attitude inspires me.

On the other hand, I know someone else who is legally blind. She wasn't born this way; she developed this over time. She runs a snack kiosk in Little Rock's capitol building. Her approach to life is not even close to the person I work with. She has a victim personality and I have no tolerance or respect for that. The lesson I've learned from knowing this person, working with my Microsoft counterpart and going to the orientation tonight is this: don't single people out because of their disability. They are people and have lots to contribute.

When I got home, I went for a 40-minute walk/run, which was according to the Galloway method.

Day 30 = Running + First Dates

This morning, like a good girl, I went to church. I'm still figuring out where my church home is in Austin. It should come as no surprise to people who know me that I have a spreadsheet where I rank each church where 1 = No way, 3 = Maybe and 5 = Winner. Haven't found a 5 yet.

My view of organized religion is not the same as what people consider to be mainstream. I don't like the contemporary-PowerPoint-rock band services. I prefer the traditional service, but only the 20-minute sermon part. I try to get in just after the collection plate and I bail out as the congregation stands for the last hymn. I grew up going to a Methodist church, which is pretty liberal. But I sample other denominations from time to time. I am really just interviewing (from a pew and unbeknownst to anyone else) the preacher. I am basically looking for a great motivational speaker. I don't buy into all the doctrine stuff anymore. I believe there is a higher power and billions of people on this planet feel the same way but call that power a different name. I also think that higher power is inside me no matter what church I attend (or not attend at all).

Anyway, I didn't mean to make this blog about shoving my spirituality down your throat. Really it's about first dates. I am fairly certain match.com is the devil, which I have pointed out in a previous blog. I keep thinking, "I need to get my money's worth," since the sadistic folks at match.com threw some free months at me when I threatened to break up with them. But a free lunch with a guy with a snaggle-tooth is a waste of my time. From now on, I want to see teeth and they better have a sense of humor to back up that smile.

Tonight I went for a 3-mile run, which always clears my mind and resets my attitude for the day. Tomorrow, or soon, I'm shutting down my profile. I am pretty sure that by now it is all for naught because I am over the guy I got on match.com to forget about in the first place.

Day 29 = Running + Soup

This morning, I got up early enough to almost meet my running group for a one and a half hour walk/run along Scenic Drive past all the million-dollar homes overlooking Lake Austin. I took some detours because my goal isn't to train for anything but instead to get out and do something rather than sleep late and hang out on the couch all the time. Mission: Accomplished.

On the way home, I gave away a second can of soup to a woman who was less than thrilled to get some food. How dare you stand on the street and beg and not have gratitude when someone shows you some charity.

Day 28 = Walking + Vodka

There are few things that motivate me, but they are the basics. Money, sex, travel, vodka, socializing. The usual suspects. So tonight, Amy W. and I decided to go for a 50-minute walk before we imbibe in some infused vodka at Rio Rita's on East 6th Street.

I like walking with friends. And I was excited to introduce Amy to walking in my neck of the woods. I don't remember what we talked about, but Amy and I never run out of things to say. We are an equally lively pair of natural blondes, so look out.

Day 27 = Resistance Bands + Chicken and Rice

Looking back on my childhood, I wouldn't say my mom was much of a gourmet. I've totally surpassed her at busting out great meals, but my mom does have some sweet recipes up her sleeve that she pulls out. Chicken Chip Bake, Shrimp Dip and one of my special favorites, Chicken and Rice Casserole. By the way, all of these are from the Better Homes and Gardens red-checkered cookbook from the 1970s. Tonight I tried to make that chicken and rice and I can never replicate it. Happy mom? You got me beat on that one.

Since I could not find a photo that does mom's chicken and rice casserole justice, I will revert to this other memory. When I was a kid, I had the Maurice Sendak book, "Chicken Soup with Rice" and it came with a song by Carole King. I recently downloaded the song and burned it to a CD and bought a new book and sent it to my friend's daughter. I need to pass on that tradition. I actually have another copy myself and one day (God willing) I will pass on that story to my kids. In fact, I've been collecting books for these future kids of mine for over 10 years now.

In the meantime, I did a workout with the resistance bands. Kind of like a "rest day" but not since I actually made an effort.

Day 26 = Boot Camp + iPhone Apps

I am fascinated with the iPhone and the iPhone app[lication]. Ironically, I do not own an iPhone. I'm what you call a late adopter, but I call myself practical. My Motorola Razr gets me from A to B for my telecommunications needs. But ever since I went out on a date with this guy on my birthday back in February who has an iPhone and told me about his dad giving him a book to write an iPhone app, it made me think that I do not want to miss out on this opportunity. I want to build an iPhone app, and I have just the idea.

So tonight I went to an iPhone app seminar with my friend Katherine. We walked in about 20 minutes late. Let me paint a picture for you. I've only seen this setting and scenario displayed in movies and on television. Here you have two attractive women walk into a room filled with every nerd/geek stereotype on Earth. My mom always said "marry a nerd because they'll take care of you" but I feel like there has got to be some physical attraction and chemistry in place, as well.

So we had the nerd couple. The "gamer" nerds. The nerd girls. The skinny nerd. The overweight nerd. The "almost could be cute nerd if he wasn't a social idot" nerd. The Asian nerd. Should I go on? Katherine and I had our own nerd joke because as we were commenting on some of the comments being made in the seminar, we ourselves were using Twitter from our phones and that is something that could be misconstrued as a technically nerdy thing to do. In any case, we were the hottest things in the room. Ssssssssssssssss

Later that night, I watched the love of my life in television drama format, LOST. Then I tried out my bootcamp workout DVD that I bought at Costco.