Jennifer's 365 Project

A box came today. Leki was pretty excited about it.

I spent part of the afternoon on the deck reading, enjoying the beautiful weather today.

While out and about today I tried out the World Cup 2014 app on my Pebble watch. Cute, but obviously when you're in a bad signal area it doesn't stay sync'd with the game.

Walked over to the fish ladder on lunch again. The water is much higher now due to recent rains.

I did a shorter run outside today. It was a little less hot and humid, compared to the last several days.

Bleh. More rain today....

This month's Loot Crate theme is transformers. This is probably the first crate where I was pretty disinterested in the theme, but it still wasn't bad. I have a new t-shirt to sleep in, at the least.

Plus the cat seems very interested.

While it's not quite the same as running, I just didnt have it in me to run in 80+ degree weather with such high humidity. If the humidity was just lower...sheesh.

I spent part of the afternoon finishing up Pokemon X and enjoying a soccer match on my tablet.

Today was my last run in the C25K program. Right now I can outrun a Romero zombie, but not a 28 Days Later zombie.
After my morning run, Chris and I hung out on the deck watching two of the World Cup games. For the second game Chris actually wheeled the TV outside on a stand he'd made awhile back. Nicer viewing experience, albeit weird to watch a TV outdoors.

Spent the evening watching the Honduras vs Ecuador game and playing some Pokemon X. A lazy Friday, but that's my kind of Friday.

With all of the recent rain I decided to run at Palmer Park again. I'm nearly done with the Couch to 5K program, which means its time to start transitioning into another program or something.

It's a rainy commute to work today...

It's been rainy on and off the last few days, but it looked clear at lunch so I wandered over to the Gerald R Ford Museum for a little bit. It's nice working downtown where there are a lot of places to walk when the weather is nice.

Hung out a little at Palmer Park this evening. I decided to try running through this park rather than my usual route. I kind of forgot how much of an incline it is in one section, so that was kind of rough.

We headed out mid-morning and spent the day with Chris's brother and dad, celebrating Father's Day. We ate at Dobeski, which is a nice little place we've been to before. We will certainly have to go there again next time we are in town!

Saturday was an early celebration with my dad for Father's Day. We brought him an assortment of beer from different countries competing in the World Cup, since he's a big fan.

We had a nice visit, complete with grilled food and plenty of soccer. And the weather was perfect outside!
And in the evening we headed over to the Royal Oak Music Theatre to catch Kids in the Hall. I had no idea they were even touring, so when I saw that they were playing in the Detroit area a few months back, I had to snap up some tickets. I was a huge fan as a kid (and definitely not their target audience). A lot of the jokes really went over my head as a little kid, but man, I still loved that show. It was awesome to see them on stage.

The World Cup in Brazil started yesterday, so after work I caught the second half of the Chile vs Australia game before I went for a run.

It was a fast day at work and then we were off to Twister Rooster to meet Jonathan and Emily for dinner. Chris and Jonathan used to work together and I've met them before, so it was cool to hang out.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos...so here's a random shot of a Nilla wafer box Chris took earlier in the day.

Chris surprised me with some flowers and chocolates when he picked me up from work today. Hooray for our 3rd anniversary.

We also learned today that Leki can scale a dresser, if he's motivated enough. And flowers are just the right kind of motivator.

I tried to snap a photo while running today of all the tree pollen coating the grass. It's starting to look like snow. I feel sorry for anyone with allergies to this stuff.

I walked with some co-workers up to the fish ladder and there was a heron perched on a nearby rock.

Chris took a series of photos of what just looks like me walking and looped them into an animated gif. I'm running. Or teleporting. You decide.

Yesterday was national doughnut day and Chris stopped at an old-coworker's dougnut shop, Daily Donut, to pick up some tasty treats.
He came back with a dozen for the two of us. With so much deliciousness around, this has been a pretty pastry-filled day.

If you're ever in the neighborhood (Clarksville), you should definitely swing by and pick up some tasty dougnuts!

I walked with a co-worker up to the fish ladder on our lunch break and came across a family of ducks by the water.

The boardwalk at Palmer Park is still technically closed. It's still wavy and slowly starting to fall apart due to lack of repairs. It's still a beautiful path to walk and I hope repairs start soon.

I'm a big fan of Patrick Rothfuss's work, so when he posted this expanded response to an AMA question on reddit, I was moved. He makes an amazing and compelling argument for helping others (by invoking cake and Bilbo Baggins!). You should really read it if you haven't.
After reading that I decided yes, I would contribute to WorldBuilders (which supports Heifer International). I contribute to other charities and non-profits, but admittedly it's always been intermittent and I can afford to do more.

So I donated.

Months passed and I received an email from Worldbuilders asking if they could speak with me about a prize I won in a drawing they had (I'd been automatically entered when I donated and I hadn't thought much about it at the time). After some back and forth and phone tag, I finally connected with them. To my surprise it was Patrick Rothfuss. Which to me was pretty freaking awesome, though I tried not to geek out about his books and derail the purpose of the call. I was a little bummed to be taking the call on my cellphone, which had a speaker that goes in and out so you can't always clearly hear when someone's speaking. Anyway, he spoke about the prize I had won and it's history with their organization. I decided that the prize was not for me and he offered to send me something else - Sandman. Since I'm a fan of the comic, I said sure.
A month passed and I didn't think much about it. Then suddenly I received an email that the package had shipped and BAM! It was at our house. Chris said it looked like I had ordered a microwave.
I opened the box and to my surprise five very large (and heavy) absolute editions plus a bonus signed copy of Melinda had appeared.
It's a really cool prize, and something I wasn't expecting when I donated. The whole reason I donated was because of the blog post, and not with any intent of winning anything. So now that I have this massive (and gorgeous) collection of Sandman comics, I feel guilty. Guilty for receiving such an awesome prize.

Basically I'm going to have to donate a whole bunch more to make up for such an awesome prize.

I've recently started reading Glenn Greenwald's new book, No Place To Hide. I've really been enjoying it so far, but then I've always enjoyed reading his columns. I'd have taken a photo of the book, but since it's an ebook, you just get a shot of my kindle. Digital books aren't quite as sexy as physical books, I know.

It's Monday and my first day back to work from a week off. As Monday's go, the day was pretty good. And with the weather so nice I went out for a run to try and get back into the swing of that, after skipping a few days while on vacation.

Today is the first day for the Artisan market at Fulton Street for the season. All the booths were filled and even at before noon there were quite a few people shopping.