January 1st, 2009 by Kathy
UPDATE: Blues reader and friend Dr. Renée passed along the program she used three years ago to get started running. Like the one below, it emphasizes easing into running, but it focuses on time rather than distance. The goal sounds a lot more realistic for me: taking ten weeks to work up to running 30 minutes straight. The first week’s sessions consist of five cycles of running two minutes and walking four (for a total of 30 minutes), and the running time gradually increases each week. I can’t find it online, but if you’re interested, send an email to birminghambluesATbellsouthDOTnet, and I’ll pass it along.
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Yeah, that’s singular. Just one. It’s the same one pretty much everyone makes every year — to get into better shape. In my case, it’s motivated not only by the usual first of the year fervor but also by the knowledge that we’re taking a family trip in the spring that will require lots of walking.
I happened across a running program in Monday’s paper that was designed by an old church acquaintance. He’s now a running coach who apparently has quite the track record (sorry, couldn’t resist) of getting couch potatoes in shape to run races in ten weeks. His trick, which makes so much sense that most people — including me — usually ignore it, is to start slowly. Of course, when he talks about starting slowly, he refers to people who decide to take up running and go three miles on their first attempt. They end up exhausted and sore and just give up. Three miles? Really? I’d drop over before I made the first quarter. I could walk three miles, but I’ve never been a runner.
Which is supposed to make me a prime candidate for his program. Not being the group activity type — and knowing just how crazy our schedules are — I decided to try the online program on my own. Today, 11YOD and I headed out to complete the first day of Week 1. The directions were as follows: find a ¼-mile track and then alternate walking and running half a lap until you complete a mile. Then, no matter how good you feel, go home. Good? Yeah, right. Not an issue. But I didn’t pass out or throw up, so I count it as a victory.
If all goes as it should, I’ll be running two miles without stopping by Week 3. Yes, I’m skeptical, but it’s worth a try.
So, Blues readers, what resolutions did you make? Here’s hoping we achieve all of them.
Posted in Miscellaneous Cool Stuff | 6 Comments »
January 1st, 2009 by Kathy
Wishing everyone here at the Blues a peaceful and prosperous 2009.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
December 30th, 2008 by Kathy
Popping up my head from the gopher hole of the holidays (more about those later 
), I highly recommend that you see “Milk” if it’s in a theater near you. I went with nephew Zach and 15YOD today and found it riveting. Sean Penn gives an amazing performance as Harvey Milk, and the actual news footage interspersed throughout the film was like a living history flashback for me. I’d forgotten just how smarmy Anita Bryant could be.
The movie is rated R, but I wouldn’t let that deter you from taking your teenager to see it. The few intimations of sex and the liberal use of the f-word are far outweighed by the powerful story and the valuable lessons of the aforementioned history. Take Kleenex.
Posted in Straight but Not Narrow, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
December 20th, 2008 by Kathy
Uploaded on December 17, 2008 by Plastic Neurospasta
Actually, AFAIK there won’t be any Daleks in this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special, but I haven’t seen a Cyberman Christmas tree anywhere.
Posted in Miscellaneous Cool Stuff | 3 Comments »
December 19th, 2008 by Kathy
Sherry Johnston was arrested by Alaska state troopers yesterday and charged with six felony counts related to “a controlled substance”.
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Posted in What Were They Thinking? | 3 Comments »
December 19th, 2008 by Kathy
Del’s post below about Rod Blagojevich reminded me that I never cross-posted this piece from Shakesville, originally published last Friday:
So we all know that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday, charged with attempting to sell the US Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. And we know that the case is based on wiretaps of Blagojevich’s home and office, which caught him uttering some obscenities as he discussed the various targets of his alleged pay-to-play scheme.
But did we know that his wife was also heard to utter the f-word? Oh noes, the little woman said “fuck”. And said it repeatedly. Let me sit down right now. I think I have the vapors.
The Chicago Tribune published a story yesterday that opened with this totally not sexist description of Patricia Blagojevich:
An unflattering portrait depicting Illinois First Lady Patricia Blagojevich as a modern-day Lady Macbeth who plotted against her husband’s perceived enemies and backed his corrupt schemes emerged in court documents connected to the governor’s arrest Tuesday.
Yes, of course. The scheming woman with blood on her hands. How original.
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Posted in Sexist Stupidity | 6 Comments »
December 18th, 2008 by Del
I’ve finally figured out what the Blago situation reminds me of. It’s the penultimate line of one of my favorite dirty jokes, the one about the shipwreck and the sheep. For those who don’t know that one, I’ll try to sum it up in family-blog language:
A ship wrecks on a desert island populated by nothing except a large flock of sheep. As the long months pass with no rescue in sight, the sailors begin to assuage their, um, tensions with the female sheep—all except the captain, who initially condemns the practice in the harshest language. However, eventually the pressure gets to him too, and after anxious consultation with the first mate as to procedure, he goes over the hill and visits a sheep. When he comes back, the crew is convulsed with laughter. “What?” he demands, embarrassed and angry. “Isn’t that what you’ve all been doing?” And the first mate replies, “Yes sir, but…you picked the ugliest one!”
“Isn’t that what you’ve all been doing?” When I read the famous bit about “I’ve got an effing valuable thing here, I’m not just going to give it away” I thought — well after I finished laughing I thought– well sure, it is certainly a valuable thing. Of course he isn’t going to just give it away. Who does that?
Here’s a HuffPo post that sort of says the same thing. Poor Blago. The man lacks finesse. Well hell, you could tell that by looking at him.
What if political life were like a SNL skit, where all the finessing was translated into actual, unvarnished plain speech in subtitle form or something? I bet there would be a lot more “eff thems” and “eff yous” heard on the Senate floor than just when Dick Cheney spoke.
Posted in National Politics | 5 Comments »
December 11th, 2008 by Del
I’m so upset. A friend just forwarded “breaking news” from al.com - apparently the DOT has put the kibosh on the northern alternative route for the new Mobile River bridge. As you will learn if you plow through the linked article, they’ve been trying to get a bridge built down here for like 15 years. The Wallace tunnel (the one on I-10) gets all backed up at rush hour, because of all the white people who work in Mobile but live over on the Eastern Shore so their kids won’t have to go to school with teh Negroes. (There, I’m so mad I just out and said it.)
Plus, the entrance is really, really crappily designed. There are accidents. There is congestion. There are bottlenecks! and the DOT really, really wants to build a nice new bridge, if possible directly over the tunnel. This would put the shadow of a hulking 200-foot high structure right over the historic buildings the tunnel was designed to spare in the first place, which is why the historic preservation folks are fighting it. More importantly (if you’re not a fluted-column-hugger) it would really, really hurt our maritime industry. They have formed a group to fight the bridge, and for a while it looked like the DOT might see sense and reroute traffic to a northern-er bridge that we already have, but no, that just won’t do.
The maritime interests have vowed to fight it in the courts. Which could easily take another fifteen years, and maybe by then we’ll have those flying cars and we won’t need a bridge after all.
Moronic commenters on al.com complaining that all the arguing is “typical Mobile” and pointing out that Greensboro eight-laned their Interstate without any fuss. Gee, commenter, did they CRIPPLE a major industry when they did it? Thought not.
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
December 11th, 2008 by Kathy
Nice. One UAB employee responded to the Day Without a Gay effort by sending a nasty email to the website:
“It’s actually shocking in this day and time,” says Jonathan Quinn, who is presidnet of Central Alabama Pride. He is talking about an e-mail, sent from a UAB employee using a government-owned e-mail account. The author called homosexuals “freaks.. the scourge of the earth.. And responsible for everything wrong in this sorry world.”
Wow, really? Responsible for everything wrong with the world? Who knew Teh Gaystm had so much power?
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Posted in Straight but Not Narrow, What Were They Thinking? | 3 Comments »
December 11th, 2008 by Kathy
…to my sis-in-law Jeri! I hope it’s a great day.
Posted in Happy Birthday | No Comments »