Where's the love for Android?

So there is a really cool app that I would like to download but apparently it's only for the *I* market.......come on creators, designers, and companies, there is more to the phone market than the iphone, give us android owners some love already.

Oh and the app in question that has sparked this grumbly post? The Stylebook app! Check it out, if they ever get around to making it available for my phone's operating system I am downloading it immediately.  While there sign up on the waiting list so hopefully they will get around to creating one much, much, much sooner. Huge thanks to the always well turned out and immensely talented author Gail Carriger via her Retro Rack blog for creating this want, nay NEED, for something I can't have.

Overdoing it?

I might be overdoing it on the music posts but I'm kind of excited about finding some new to me tunes after being a bit stagnant in that department for a few months.  Hope everyone is enjoying it as much as I am.

Don't these two sound gorgeous together? 

It only hurts for a short time

Wasn't it just a few days ago I was rambling on about PB's vs PR's? Why yes, I think it was ;-).  Anyway this past weekend I decided on the down low to tag along with Speedy Girl to her 5k even though I can't really afford any luxuries right now.........and yes a race is a luxury at the moment after all of Elsie's vet bills this fall, I am still trying to dig myself out of that and she needs to go back for another round of antibiotics and tests. However it was kind of nice treating myself to a race after so long and I was kind of curious about where I am at competition running wise.  

This brings me to the race......it was the first annual Frozen Feet 5k in Conway, AR and while the weather didn't quite cooperate with the race name it was certainly kind of nice to not be freezing while standing around waiting on start time.  It was slightly humid but the sun stayed behind the clouds so that kept the temperature down to a manageable level.  Since it was a spur of the moment kind of decision I hadn't looked up any race info until we were on our way over and it was a bit of sticker shock to find out the registration was $30, fairly steep for a 5k.  We didn't get any shirts that morning but they did say they would send them to us, the junior auxiliary was trying not to have any overages which I can't blame them for and while I'm not necessarily wanting to add to my collection I do want a shirt for that price!  

The course ended up being a familiar one since they used the Women Can Run 5k route! Can't say I blame them since it is already marked and all but darn it those 13 turns are a pain in the arse especially when you are trying to shave off as much time as possible.  As usual there was a jackrabbit start but I just let them go and did my own pace since I was fairly sure the super quick start would catch up to most of them within the first mile.  Just settled in and started reeling people in, listening to their labored breathing as I did so.  It ended up being a smaller race and I was able to keep track of where I was at and where Speedy Girl was at--I know I could never keep up with her but was wanting to know where her position was at because I knew she would be either 1st or 2nd female overall.  

As the first 2 miles clicked by I was feeling strong and while I was working hard I wasn't in the state that most people around me were judging by their breathing.  It was just after mile 2 that I started feeling my right shoe lace starting to loosen up--the shoes I was wearing are bad about coming untied but I had triple-knotted them prior to the race but evidently it wasn't enough, I kept running on but it got loose enough that I had to stop and re-tie it with 4/10 of a mile left to go, and two girls and a guy that I'd passed zoomed by me.  Unfortunately it was the shoe that I'd attached the chip to and I had no choice but to stop, visions of the shoe flying off into someone's yard and having to chase it down was haunting me lol.  

So a very quick stop to lace a shoe and then I was up and after the trio, no way was I gonna let them finish ahead of me!  I do think it surprised them that I caught up and passed so quickly but I was on a mission and I was highly peeved at myself and my shoes........it was at this point that the finish line clock came into sight and I saw the seconds in the 40s clicking down (up?) and heard Speedy Girl yelling at me that I was 3rd female so I managed to find another burst of speed and pushed on as hard as possible because no way did I want that to turn over into the next minute!  Talk about hitting the puke zone, ugh.

My previous 5k pr of 23:20 was set back in 2009 and the Women Can Run race on the same course back in the spring was 23:53 so I was hoping for a sub 23 best case scenario.........my official chip time Saturday was 21:50, a personal record of 1:30!!!!!!!!!!!! I never dreamed I could hit sub 22, it is still mind-boggling that I did it and that's with losing 10-15 seconds because of the damn shoe lace.  My splits for the first 2 miles were fairly even (6:56 and 6:54), mile 3 would have been close to the same--there's a huge spike upward in the graph from my garmin.   And yes, I placed 3rd overall female which was a minute and one second behind S.G. who took 2nd.  I am extremely appreciative of her sharing her training and schedule with me because it kept me pushing hard when I had no reason to do so and certainly toughened me up mentally. 

Earworm!

I think I might have a new earworm obsession in the form of Willy Moon. Warning: there is "adult" language so be careful about clicking play in the presence of kids or those easily offended ;-).

PB vs PR

So I do a little bit of running here and there--you might have noticed from my sidebar that there's not much in the way of racing going on but I still like to get out and do a nice little speed workout occasionally to remind the legs how it feels to go fast (relatively speaking).  My training partner by the way is just a wee bit on the fast side--she was first overall female in a recent half marathon at a pace per mile that is faster than my 5k personal record--so when I do a specialized workout with her my goal is to at least try and keep her within sight (usually doesn't happen, lol).  Today ended up being a 1 mile full out after a warmup, recovery slog, then a half mile full out again............My personal record for the mile distance is 6:43, well today I managed to eke out a 6:35, not a record since it wasn't a race but most definitely a personal best.  Why yes, I was quite stoked to see that time, at least after I got my breathing back under control.  Even better was that I did a 3:10 half mile after the recovery slog (slow jog).  Yes, my friend's time were quite a bit faster but hey, a person has to have a "rabbit" right? Makes me wonder what I could do in a 5k right now.

Movie recommendation

Stumbled across a great indie horror film while browsing through Netflix last night during my bout of insomnia.  Not too heavy on the gore, fantastic acting by the entire cast and WOW, I did not recognize Kelly McGillis until the credits were rolling!!!!!!

"Stake Land"

The Second Hand Pledge

This is such an awesomely cool idea from The Citizen Rosebud.  More and more of my wardrobe is consisting of vintage and second hand items (especially the leather garments) so this definitely fits in with my current lifestyle.  Even a favorite pair of boots was purchased at a vintage shop in the UK last fall.

How about you, will you take the shop second hand first pledge too?

Hi there December

Can you believe it's December already? Where ever has the time gone? After a couple of weeks of late-fall, early winter temps Mother Nature has decided that we needed some spring-like days here in the south.  I'm not going to complain too terribly much because I've been constantly shivering due to keeping the thermostat set at 68F in order to save money.  Yes, I realize that's not cold to some people but I also keep the air conditioning temp set at 75-78F during the summer so this is a bit of a shock to my system.  And how nice was it to be able to run outside in shorts and a jog bra comfortably on the first day of December........yep, not complaining at all, lol.

I had a gorgeous picture to download from a Thanksgiving walk but apparently I've exceeded my 1 gig storage limit so no photos until I get that sorted out.  Oh, and no promises about how often I am going to update the blog because that's certainly worked out so well in the past, HA!

In the meantime, enjoy a song from The Heavy that was featured on last season's "Being Human".  Good stuff, both the song and the show (one of the few I have the patience to watch).

My first "official" loch

At this rate I may actually get all of my 3 days in Scotland trip posts done in October (wouldn't lay any money down on that though, lol).  Loch Lomond was my first official visit to the shores of a Scottish lake, fitting since it is the largest freshwater body of water for surface area in mainland Great Britain.  My guide for the trip suggested we skip the tourist-laden southern areas and we stopped at an access that only had 3 other cars in it just a bit further north.

What impressed me was how tidy most of the areas were/are in the UK

See, not a bit of debris anywhere but then again trash bins were available everywhere

Mist rolling in over the hills on opposite bank

Looking north at the mountains getting progressively taller

So incredibly peaceful, you couldn't hear the highway noise, just the waves rolling in

Love the play of light as the clouds and mist shifted

So clear

Duck swimming through the waves

I don't put much stock into astrology but I do certainly seem to live up to my Pisces nature when it comes to water

Smile :-)

On the road again

Haven't done a song in a while so leaving with a live version of "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" from The Real McKenzies

Not quite a conundrum

Last week I started a new job in a local gym (the best one in my area, email if you want info! Oh and drivers, there is a hotel next door with truck parking and there's also room for a bobtail to park on the street--day rates are $5) and yesterday I finally got around to putting some of my truck gear up for sale as well as removing the 2 big truck keys I had still hanging on my key ring.  That was a big step for me in admitting I probably won't drive full time ever again, I do plan on keeping my CDL active, even went and got my 2 year DOT physical done at my own cost over the summer but that part of my life for the most part is probably over.  The pay is excellent if you get with a good company but there are so many negatives right now within the industry that I was burned out after 11 straight years of it.  I have seen much of the United States and some of Canada thanks to trucking and learned so many things and for that I'm very grateful.

That brings me to my not quite a conundrum...........what to do with my blog and twitter name--should I leave it? It is quite catchy and I'm unsure of what else to go with as of now.  I could always go the route of modifying it to Gab (was) a trucker since the gabsatrucker was a bit of a play on "gab is a trucker" in the beginning. "Gabs" was never really a nickname until the blog started gaining readers anyway.  Suggestions are welcome!

Even my alienware sports the gabsatrucker name, branded much?

A couple of hours in Glasgow

One of these days I will sit down and plan a proper visit to a place instead of waiting until the last minute. I miss so much but have also seen far more than I ever dreamed I would get a chance at seeing.  Here are a few pics of the Glasgow drive-through.

Cute, eh? Check out the sporran on the front

Mix of the old, the not as old, and the new

Taking pics of the other tourists taking pics

Quite a sordid and bloody history if the Scottish man who stopped to translate for me is to be believed. Public hangings and floggings apparently

Sensing a theme? 

Glasgow Cathedral. Read more about it here and here.  I can't say enough nice things about the Historic Scotland staff, they were incredibly helpful and friendly and even took the time for a long chat (I learned quite a bit about the Glasgow-Edinburgh rivalry, lol)

Construction is ongoing but also as unobtrusive as possible

Even on a dreary overcast day the colors are gorgeous

Can you imagine this being your church?

They were very dapper and scholarly

Looking towards the Necropolis

The red car certainly stood out

Memorial of the Glasgow Necropolis bridge

Hopefully you can read this by enlarging the pic, if not go here

Looking back

I found the architecture of the memorials and graves quite fascinating

Looking at the cathedral, check out closeup of monument in next photo

Scottish Lyrics to "Wee Willie Winkie"

Wee Willie Winkie rins through the toun,

Up stairs and doon stairs in his nicht-goun,

Tirlin' at the window, cryin' at the lock,

"Are the a' the bairnies in their beds, it's noo past ten o'clock."

"Hey, Willie Winkie, are ye comin' ben?

The cat's singin' grey thrums to the sleepin' hen,

The dog's spelder'd on the floor, and disna gi'e a cheep,

But here's a waukrife laddie that winna fa' asleep!"

Onything but sleep, you rogue! glow'ring like the mune,

Rattlin' in an airn jug wi' an airn spune,

Rumblin', tumblin' round about, crawin' like a cock,

Skirlin' like a kenna-what, wauk'nin' sleepin' folk.

"Hey, Willie Winkie - the wean's in a creel!

Wambling aff a bodie's knee like a verra eel,

Ruggin' at the cat's lug, and ravelin' a' her thrums

Hey, Willie Winkie - see, there he comes!"

Wear it is the mither that has a stoorie wean,

A wee stumple stoussie, that canna rin his lane,

That has a battle aye wi' sleep before he'll close an ee

But a kiss frae aff his rosy lips gies strength anew to me.

Looking out over Glasgow

We have Mr. Tennant to thank for our bright whites, he patented bleaching powder

Loved this twisted tree

Yes, this really should have gone up at the start of the necropolis pics

Fan-dom in Glasgow

Time to revisit the UK......no, not physically (well, it is but that's not happening right now so is beside the point) but it is way past time to put up some more pics from the early summer trip.  Today's post is inspired by my fan-dom of Craig Ferguson--ahhh, such a gorgeous accent--and maybe a nudge from a bossy TWBrit that an update was past due.

First there is this brilliant clip:



And then there is me...........I'm certainly nowhere close to looking like Mila but how cool (and uber-geeky!) is it that I have pics of me standing where they filmed the above clip?

Yes, I look a bit starry-eyed ;-)

Perfection

The new Belstaff ad campaign is pure perfection......Gorgeous leather, motorcycles, boots, music, Ewan McGregor, scenery........Yes, I might be gushing.



I also have some news coming up that I don't quite feel ready to blog about right now but there should be an update coming around the first of October :-).  In the meantime enjoy the vid above, I've already replayed it 5x tonight.

score

Score. And I didn't even realize by how much when I picked this shirt up for .38 at a goodwill store.  Yep, thirty-eight cents, they were having an 85% off green tags sale.

I just happened to love the bright colors of it, the "Made in the USA" tag made it even better, wore it about the house today before deciding to google the name on the label..........turns out Craig Taylor shirts are a bit spendy.  Good to know that I haven't completely lost my touch for finding a fantastic bargain.

Running

Running. It's my therapy, I gripe, grumble, rant, rave so much that I think my friends sometimes want to shove me in front of a car in order to shut me up especially on the days I decide to TMI them.  TMI=too much information just in case anyone is unfamiliar with the term.  Imparting with TMI is usually accompanied by groans, gasps, and "gross!"

Running is also where sometimes a friend will tell a story and you're laughing so hard it hurts and and you can't run in a straight line (ala Speedy Girl this past Wednesday) which is not good when you happen to be on a fairly busy road right at dawn that has no shoulder. 

Then there is running with (wo)man's best friend, looking up, and saying "Oh my gawd, is that a skunk????"  Yep, that happened this morning on our Sunday morning recovery trail run.......Fortunately, Elsie was right beside me and I had her leash in hand so was able to stop her from running on up to it.  Brenda's dog Jessie (who Elsie usually follows EVERYWHERE out there) was not next to us.  We're all shouting come back, Jessie is thinking there has to be something good out there since we all sound panicky, and runs by the skunk 2-3 times before she finally spots it and lunges at it playfully...........Tail goes up, I'm thinking that's all she wrote for the interior of Bren's car, and then the skunk CHARGES AND CHASES JESSIE!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG, it was the funniest sight, I'm just glad it charged rather than spinning around to spray.  Talk about sighs of relief once we got away and quit laughing long enough to do so. 

Have I mentioned I love my running friends (2 and 4 legged) lately? 

Seen on the run

There are some places I have the privilege to run that while they may not be breathtakingly beautiful by most people's standards, they do have just a little something extra that seems to soothe the soul and makes even a bad run well worth getting out of bed before dawn.

Can barely make out the church, the old saying about darkest before dawn is a cliche for a reason

Sharing the field, there were also a couple of horses but they wouldn't stand still so I could take their pics

Typical country road around here, most are paved now

I totally threw off our pace by wanting to stop and take photos but I think my friends were enjoying feeding the goats ;-)

The black one in front was the first to come visit Robert when we stopped

baaaaaaa, more please! And yes, goats do baa

Bit of swamp, last week there was a blue crane out here but didn't see it this weekend

I didn't manage to get photos of the baby armadillo, raccoon, field full of deer, the crazed squirrels, or the kittens that followed two of our friends (people that dump animals should be tarred and feathered on the town square by the way, grrrr) but I'm sure you're getting the idea why this is one of my favorite routes.