MARATHON!!!!!

selfie right after the finish line

I did it! I really did it!! Surprisingly, I'm not sure how glad I am that I did it though. That "race" takes such a toll on your body! My hips will probably never be the same, haha. Before the race, I always would think, how hard could it really be? The answer is HARD! What I was surprised by was that it wasn't my lungs or muscles that were really struggling or even a lack of energy (mainly, because I was popping a lot of energy chews and beans :), but it was the fatigue of the joints which is what slowed me down the most. Maybe I didn't train enough? Here is the training chart I used. You'll see in the middle I had to cut back some because I had injured my IT Band.

Now, let me tell you the good parts about the experience...

The race started at 5AM so it was still dark enough for fireworks!

and I got to catch a beautiful sunrise

there was a lot of good people watching and a lot of neon!

and Brian, bless his big heart, went the last 4 miles with me! He took this pic:

What a guy!

a couple of the pro pics: struggling and pretending not to struggle, ha!

and finally a finish shot...

I think my official finish time was 5:52.51. Not great, but hey, I got my medal. :]

thai cooking

I have to say, I'm enjoying the cooking aspect of domestic life more than I thought I would. I've been surprising myself with the types of dishes I am able to make that I previously only thought I could get at restaurants, for instance, beef pho or chicken tikka masala. The latest ethnic concoctions I have tried to prepare are Thai dishes. As you may remember, I started out by making red chicken curry, which I posted about a couple months ago. Since then, I have made two more Thai meals, pad thai and hot and sour soup, to round out goal #66 which was to cook three dishes in total.

Here's the pad thai. (I got a little crazy with the cilantro!)

Pad thai turned out to be my favorite to prepare of the three. It's a fantastic recipe! Here's where I started from: http://browniesfordinner.com/2010/05/11/easy-pad-thai/  Rice noodles, the main ingredient, were fun and easy, because I found out that they just cook in hot tap water. No need to boil! Nice! I made it vegetarian style the first time and Brian, the carnivore, didn't even really seem to mind.

Lastly, I gave thai hot and sour soup a try. It's funny, I used to not even really like soups up until about 3 years ago. So weird. Anyway, I've done a 180 and now I seem to crave soup all of the time! Here's the recipe I roughly used: http://thaifood.about.com/od/thaisnacks/r/hotandsoursoup.htm. This one was fun because I got to use bok choy for the first time. Look at it just draping itself so beautifully over the edge of the ladle. :]

If you come to visit, there's a good chance you might get served (at least!) one of these three.

steve jobs book

Jenny, my rad sister in law (remember, the one who introduced me to this awesome goals challenge!), gave me the Steve Jobs biography for Christmas (technically, Thanksgiving ;) last year. I was excited because I'd heard good reviews about it and I've always admired Apple design. 

What a fascinating guy! I felt like I already knew so much about him, but the book is so thorough that I found out so much more. Obviously, as a product designer, I enjoyed reading about the details of Apple's product development process. What surprised me, however, was how interested I was in his interpersonal relationships. You probably already know that he could be a ruthless jerk, but he could also be incredibly sensitive. The author, Walter Isaacson, doesn't sugarcoat any of it, so that honesty made the stories so compelling. To quote Jobs, I think it's "insanely great" that he didn't have Isaacson edit out some of the stuff that makes him look bad. As a result, the book is such a complete picture (at least it seems) of the crazy life of such a passionate genius who truly did put a "dent in the universe." I definitely recommend reading it.

The marks one of the books off of my list for goal #46

I painted an elephant

Gracious Tory, as she's lovingly known around here, had hinted at being interested in having a painting of an elephant a long time ago. So much time had passed since her first request that I had completely forgotten that she had even asked until she reminded me a year(?) ago. Well, for whatever reason, I got inspired a little bit before her birthday, and decided to finally bang it out! (Goal #51- Do a painting right away next time inspiration strikes)

This was the first time I have ever started and completed a painting in one single day. I didn't know I had it in me! :]  Probably because it was only gray scale, but, still, I need to do more of this.

In other elephant related news, check this out! I want to see it! Tor, you in?! :]

geocaching event

If you didn't think it was official before, it certainly is now...I am a bonafide geocaching geek. This was confirmed last Wednesday evening when Brian and I went down to Waikiki for a geocachers "event cache" (Goal #96). It was deemed a Cookie Flash Mob. IowaBeaver hosted (you can't make this stuff up) and passed out Hawaiian cookies to everyone who attended. I was surprised at the turnout, probably about 25 folks showed up.

We met a few people...a couple visiting from Texas, a retired man who happened to live just a couple blocks away from me in Memphis, and (drum roll)... GeoGerms! This is the guy I was telling you about in my last geocache post. He was the first person to find the cache I hid and has found every single cache on the island! It was cute, he was definitely a little celebrity in this circle. He was telling me about how he started watching Breaking Bad after finding my cache, but before he could finish he got pulled away to meet some of his "fans." Haha. I love geocachers.

GeoGerms and his wife are in matching blue shirts, RutRut, the retiree from Memphis, is in the black socks, and IowaBeaver is the bald guy at the back left. :]

table is glued!

This has to be THE most procrastinated goal on my list- #23 Glue table together. This task of doing the final gluing on a table that I made in a furniture design class at SCAD was 7 years in the making. Let me repeat, I avoided doing this simple project for 7 whole years! Once I had everything I needed (just wood glue and a securing mechanism) it took an entire 5 minutes to complete. For how easy it was, it seems so silly that I put it off now that it's over with.

The impetus for finally getting 'er done was the idea that I could use a ratchet strap to secure the pieces tightly together when the glue was drying. Up until this point I thought I had to get my hands on some clamps. However, even if I got clamps I was worried about using them for fear I would damage the diagonal corners on which all of the pressure would have to be placed for tightening. Thank goodness for moments of creative inspiration!

Turkey Trick!

Turkey learned how to go get his leash before going on a walk! #37- Check! (Modified from "Teach Turkey to jump over Storm." Storm doesn't trust Turkey, and I don't blame her.)

I'm an official geocache hider!

The way my luck was going I thought it would never happen. Back in Memphis, my first cache that I attempted to hide was discovered before I had even posted it online! Someone had to have been watching me hide it, because I went to check on it one more time before submitting it for review and the log had been signed. The handle, "MPD," was written and a handcuff key was attached. What? Was the Memphis Police Department messing with me?! I was a bit weirded out with that situation, so I just removed the cache and never posted it.

Fast forward to Hawaii. A couple weeks ago I came up with an idea for a puzzle cache based around the theme of the TV show, Breaking Bad, and a British explorer who mapped the Hawaiian Islands. Captain Cook was the name of the explorer and there is also a character on the show with the same name, hence, the link between the two. I was really excited about the cache idea and came up with a bunch of questions to solve the puzzle, an interesting write-up on the show, info on the Captain, the whole bit. I was really proud of it and thought it came together nicely.

My excitement turned into frustration though, when, after submitting the cache, the reviewer told me that it could not be posted because it was of a commercial nature. As in, I was trying to advertise for the show and force people to purchase cable to watch it. I was so bummed that I was on the brink of yet another cache failure! 

Well, I decided I wasn't going to roll over. I explained to the reviewer that I had no affiliation with the show, would in no way benefit monetarily, and on top of all that, I don't even have cable (let alone a TV) so it was silly to think I was trying to force people to buy cable just to solve the cache. Besides, I accounted for people who may not have seen the show by creating the puzzle so that it could be solved by just a few google searches if need be, anyway.

It took some more communication and involvement with the head geocaching regulation group, but in the end, I got approved! "Breaking Bad with Captain Cook" was posted July 17 at 5:12 PM and just over 2 and a half hours later it was found by GeoGerms. It turns out that GeoGerms is a power cacher here on the islands. He and his kids have found every single cache on the island of Oahu!! What?! I read his profile further and discovered that he also took a geocaching challenge which required that he find a series of caches on 4 separate islands, and he did it all in ONE DAY! This guy is a nut and I love it!

Breaking Bad with Captain Cook Cache

Anyway, that was the long-winded tale of my cache hiding adventures so far. This only completes a third of goal #17- Hide 3 geocaches, but now that I finally have one under my belt, I'm hoping the others will go more smoothly. :]  If you want to check out the cache you can click here.

mmmmm...thai food!

Crisp salad with special house peanut sauce, perfectly seasoned hot and sweet vegetable soup, and for the grand finale, spicy chicken gang deang with creamy coconut milk mixed in a medley of carrots, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, and fresh thai basil. Oh, Thai Bistro, how I've missed you!

This fine Memphis establishment was my lunchtime addiction. I probably should have sought out therapy, because, like a drug addict, almost every single Thursday I would shamelessly show up to get the above lunch special to go. (And it had to be Thursday, see, because that was hot and sweet vegetable soup day, which was by far the best.) I really am kind of embarrassed to say, but it got to the point where the owner, Ann, would expect my call. She would just pick up the phone and tell me right away that "my usual" would be ready in 15 minutes. Bad, right?! But so goooood, I couldn't help it! :)

my to go soup lid

Anyway, since being in Honolulu, I have tried to find something even remotely comparable at thai restaurants here. No such luck. As I was mourning this fact one day, between my whines and whimpers, Brian told me I just needed to try to make some on my own. A novel idea, but cooking curry seemed so foreign! It needs fish sauce?! I don't think I want to touch that. Well, with more encouragement from Brian, I finally decided to just give it a shot. It was one of my goals anyway (#66).

I have to say it turned out better than I expected. And, surprisingly, the actual cooking process wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be. However, something definitely wasn't quite right, and I think that was because I made some compromises with the ingredients. For instance, I used regular basil, not thai basil, and because of my fear of the fish sauce, I don't think I put in enough. I've tried to make the dish twice since then, and I'm getting better! Brian picked up some thai basil from the farmer's market and that makes a world of difference! I still don't think I'll ever reach the pinnacle that is Thai Bistro, but I'm just glad I have an alternative to the so-so thai restaurants we're finding here.

pet paintings

Stormie had a vet appointment a couple days ago to get her yearly shots. The trip to the vet was kind of a mini appointment for me too, because I presented a flyer to them. I've been thinking that I might be able to get some work painting portraits of pets, so I figured what better place than a vet's office to advertise my services. Hence, I asked if they would be interested in displaying the following flyer in their waiting room (#19).

The receptionist said she needed to get the doctor's approval, understandably, so I'm waiting to hear back to see if it's ok. I think I'll try to hit up a couple other vets, too, to try to get more visibility.

LinkedIn

I signed up on LinkedIn because I thought I was supposed to for my career, not because I really wanted to or thought it was interesting. However, if I have a profile page and all that is listed is my name, picture, and the meager basics, then what's the point, right? So, I figured if I was going to be on there, I might as well at least fake like I think it's important. Hence, goal #90- Update my LinkedIn Profile.

Obviously, now that I'm on the job hunt, LinkedIn might actually be of service to me. So, I think that's why I finally got around to doing it. Here's my page with the updates. I really wouldn't waste your time visiting it, unless you get your giggles from reading resumes. It's terribly boring and braggy in typical resume fashion, so you can just trust me on this one ;)

Here's a profile that you should actually check out: Art Flater

portraits

I had two opportunities come up recently where I was able to accomplish goal #21- Start practicing taking portraits of friends. This is something I really want to get better at, so what better way than practice, right?! I hadn't really busted out my cam cam since the honeymoon, so it was about durn time!

The first shoot I had was with Brian's friends from from work, Kate and Adam. The reason for taking the pictures was because Kate was 9 months preggers! I had never taken pictures before of someone who was pregnant, so I was just kind of making it up as I went. A couple of shots had a bit of a blur that I wasn't happy about, but overall I was fairly pleased with the results!

Their first baby Lana :]

And Kate had her baby, Kyden, on the 9th, so now I get to take pictures of him! Super excited! Shooting Kate and Adam was a good warm-up for a paid job that I found off of craigslist to capture a guy, Dan, proposing to his girlfriend, Mary, on the beach of Waikiki. Shooting Kate and Adam was very relaxed, and not even really planned, but a proposal?! Sheesh, I was nervous! 

Luckily, it turned out that Dan was very easy going too, AND as it turned out, an industrial designer! We got along well. When it was "go time", I did make a rookie mistake and didn't get the the ideal action shots that I wanted, but the pictures worked out nonetheless. Thankfully, the pressure was off after the surprise and the portraits session went more smoothly. Here are my favorites:

 

She said YES!

I think I want to follow in Lexi's footsteps and do more of this!

my muse was Muse!

I've always been curious about web design. My appetite was whetted back in my senior year of college when we spent two sessions in my rendering class on Image Ready, a sister software to Photoshop which was used for web design. Obviously, just two classes worth of information didn't make me a pro, but it was just enough to make me realize that I had the tools to make a website on my own! This was very exciting!

The first thing I tried to make was a portfolio website, and nicolemoody.com was born! Following soon after was the infamous moodymoovies.com. This site was my real baby, and I loved spending time on it. However, it got to the point where the novelty of having websites wore off, and I realized that it was kind of a royal pain to update information on them, because the software I was using was archaic.

Fast forward to 2012, seven years since my first site, and the technology has obviously gotten much better. I had my eyes on Flash and/or Dreamweaver, so goal #86 was to learn one of these pieces of software. However, Adobe decided to flip the script and it created a new website-building software just for me! Muse! It's perfect for someone who wants to dabble in the web world, but doesn't want to learn code or complex programs like Flash or Dreamweaver. There was a seminar on Muse at the University of Hawaii a couple months ago, so I went and learned the basics of the program for half a day. I got excited about web design again and I dove right into updating moodymoovies.com (#9) after a LONG hiatus. Check it out!

It still needs some work done on it (I think I want to bring back the family pictures), but it was very satisfying to do an update and try something new. Like my last post, this goal got a twist, but it still accomplished the idea.

sewing project

When I updated my list the other day I realized I was quite behind on getting posts written for completed goals. One of these was #61- Sew Turkey's bed. For awhile there, Turkey was chewing on anything he could get his little paws on. Did I say little? I meant beastly. He especially liked to get a hold of the zippers on his beds and chew them off to get to the stuffing. Awesome.

Needless to say, I had enough of buying new beds, so I decided that I would just make my own, sans zippers. I bought the fabric and was ready to go, but then a different project came up that the fabric was perfect for, so I switched gears. I decided to make Lexi a purse camera bag! Her birthday was coming up and I had seen her express interest in this site on facebook, but I'm too cheap to shell out $150+ for a purse no matter how cute. So, I thought I would make her one instead!

I googled DIY purse camera bag, and found quite a few good tutorials. This one seemed like my speed, so I gave it a shot. I found a cute purse at Marshalls, got some velcro, and pulled out some old packaging materials I had saved to reuse. After whipping out my sewing machine, I went to town! Here are the results:

before 

after!

made a new friend(?)

We've been in Hawaii almost 3 months now. Crazy! Thankfully, I'm finally to the point where I don't have to have Siri help me find where I'm going every freaking time I leave the house. Another nice thing, is that we've slowly figured out the best places to take the dogs for exercise. Turns out there is a great park just a short walk from our house where we can let them off leash. Turkey loves it because he can really pick up some major speed in games of chase and Storm likes it for all the lizards that she tries to hunt down.

Here are few instagram pics from the park:

So, the reason I'm going on about the park is because it leads me to goal #49, make a new friend. I think it was the very first time we came to the park that we met Linda and her old, but sprightly dog, Pete. Linda was quite chatty, so we covered a lot of ground in getting to know each other right away. After about 30 minutes, it was clear that we had a lot in common in regards to interest in outdoor activities. She offered to take us out on a hike sometime, so we exchanged numbers before we left so that we could set something up. I was excited to be introduced to new places by a local.

It took a week or two (and the hiking got put on the back burner), but eventually Linda and I got together to go swimming instead. She knew of a good place to go out in the ocean where there was a windsock as a target. It turned out to be a lovely swim, and we even saw some fish. Linda was very personable and easy going. We planned to do it again.

I have to say that even though it was an enjoyable experience, something felt weird about it, and I think it was our age difference. I'd like to think I could be friends with anybody, but I guess a 28 year old and a 47(?) year old, because of different life experiences, eventually run out of things to talk about? Luckily when swimming you don't have to do much talking, so we went out again, but after that we quit calling each other, because I think we both felt the weirdness. 

Oh well, I'm kind of giving myself credit for this goal anyways, because we were friends for a couple weeks. Unfortunately, it just didn't last, but luckily I've found a new swimming buddy in Bonnie! (my old friend from high school who lives here now) We're going to train for a 2.348 mile roughwater swim! yikes!