Friday, March 26, 2010

Donating My Hair For Cancer

Every year, I participate in the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life event in my town to support the fight against cancer. This is also my second year serving as Event Co-Chair of the event.

This year, I've decided to make things a little more interesting. If I reach my goal of raising $1,000, I promise to cut my hair and donate it to Locks of Love. Meaning, I'll have to cut at least 10 inches. But I may go shorter.

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The (Cancer) Survivor Lap at the 2009 Relay

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The youngest cancer survivor at our event last year. Her dad is holding her and her mom and sister are in the background.

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That's me at the podium during the opening ceremony.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Add this to my resume

I've been asked to be a model in a fashion show in May. It's for work - the show will raise money for the Auxiliary at one of our hospitals, and the money will be used to new breast cancer digital diagnostic technology. So it's for a good cause. We'll see how it goes though ... I have watched pretty much ever episode of America's Next Top Model ever aired. Hopefully I've picked up something from that show.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Training Update

I have had a good past few days with my running!

On Saturday, I ran 6 miles! Even though I've been slacking with my shorter weekday runs, I've been sticking to my distance goals. I ran 6 miles at an 11:30 pace (1 hr, 9 mins). Not great, but could be worse. Last weekend I ran 5 miles in 1 hour (so a 12:00 pace).

Today, I ran 3 miles and my pace was around 6mi/hour (10:00 pace). This is great for me, usually I can't do that without being on a treadmill. Today's run was actually "easy." So I probably should have run a little faster.

Also, I tried out a great new running app - My Tracks for Android. It tracks my distance, time, pace, elevation, and my route using GPS. And I can send my run info to my Google Docs. Pretty awesome. I've tried a few other apps, this is my favorite so far.

Hopefully I can stick to my shorter weekday runs to increase my pace. That should be easier now that the days are longer, the snow has melted and it's warmer - I hate running in a stinky gym on a dreadmill. Actually, we're thinking about quitting the gym. Right now we pay $32 total for our monthly membership fee. Not bad, but it adds up and we don't go all that often and have enough free resources available between the weights we own, free On Demand workouts on Comcast, free lap swimming at the high school and running outside. If we quit the gym now and decide to join again when it gets cold and dark out (so, November), we'll still come out ahead. Membership fees for April - October would equal $224. If we joined again in November, the enrollment fee would be $99 each (so $198 total). So we would actually come out ahead $26. Even more so if they were doing a promo if/when we re-join, or if they pro-rate March for us.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Oscar Predictions

This Sunday is the Oscars, and for the past few years, my (now) sister-in-law has hosted a party (and now that they're married, my brother and sister-in-law have hosted a party). Anyway, we also do Oscar ballots, and usually there is a prize for whoever gets the most correct (but most of us would be happy with just the bragging rights). This year, I'm doing research! And based on that, here are my Oscar picks:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges
Best Actress: Meryl Streep
Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz
Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique
Best Director: Kathryn Bigleow
Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Taranteno
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman
Best Animated Film: Up
Best Documentary: The Cove
Best Foreign Language Film: Das Weisse Band (Germany)
Cinematography: Avatar
Art Direction: Avatar
Costume Design: Coco Before Chanel
Film Editing: The Hurt Locker
Sound Editing: Inglorious Basterds
Make up: Star Trek
Original Score: Up
Original Song: The Weary King (Crazy Heart)
Visual Effects: Avatar

Bold = movies I've seen