Four Things Meme

Four Jobs I've Had

1. McDonald's employee
2. Trade desk clerk (at the IU Bookstore)
3. Copy editor
4. Associate development editor

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

1. Fried Green Tomatoes
2. Go Fish
3. The Sound of Music
4. Truth or Dare (although that's probably not true anymore)

Four Places I've Lived

1. Baltimore, MD
2. Valparaiso, IN
3. Bloomington, IN
4. Indianapolis, IN

Four TV Shows I Love

1. Gilmore Girls
2. The Amazing Race
3. The L-Word
4. 30 Days

Four Places I've Been On Holiday

1. Arlington, VA
2. Roswell, NM
3. Europe (it was a tour; I didn't see the entire continent)
4. Tucson, AZ

Four of My Favorite Dishes

1. Thai noodles
2. Lemon chicken
3. Szechuan green beans
4. Pot roast

Four Sites I Visit Daily

1. www.commonplacebook.com
2. another pink world
3. Sardonic Bomb
4. www.belicove.com

Four Places I Would Rather Be Now

1. On a road trip
2. On the ice
3. At the Eiffel Tower
4. Somewhere warm

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging

1. lisa
2. Mykal
3. Lori B.
4. Matt

Monkey on ice!

Eight-year-old Gun-Mo learned to skate for the Animal Academy Show in Seoul, South Korea, which celebrates the Lunar New Year of the Dog. The trainer said the monkey had two weeks of lessons. Looks like Gun-Mo is having a great time!

Deborah Burgoyne North American Invitational

I competed at the Deborah Burgoyne North American Invitational in Wyandotte, MI, on Saturday. This is always one of my favorite competitions. Everyone is so nice, and people are really supportive of one another. I felt like I skated pretty well, especially considering that my knee still isn't back to normal. I didn't land my loop in either program, but it showed up for practice Friday night; I was pleased. Everyone seemed to like my interpretive program (I was the Wicked Witch of the West and I skated to "Defying Gravity" from the musical Wicked), and one of the skaters in the interp group before mine did another song from the same musical, "Popular." Her program was great, and we had fun posing for pictures together.

Things I learned:

* It will always snow at DBNAI. (If it doesn't, we'll have freezing rain.) It's happened seven years in a row now.
* I need to find another way to secure my witch's hat. Clips don't work. A former Wicked Witch suggested sewing a ribbon to the hat, which I'll try next. (The damn thing stayed on every time in practice, but tried to lift off my head in competition.)
* It's hard to put green makeup on the back of your neck and get it right.
* It's hard to talk on the phone while putting on green makeup.
* Sometimes I don't shake like a leaf after I compete. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for why it happens or doesn't happen.
* If I'm not going to land my loop, I can put my opposite foot down instead and do a half loop. At least it's still a real jump.

R.I.P. iPod

My beloved iPod has experienced a hard drive failure. The nice folks here at the Apple Store just gave me a new one, which is supposed to work. It'll be nice to have a reliable iPod again! I'm heading home to charge it and load it with music.

Tired

I'm amazed at how tired (and headachey) spending the day at home has made me. I haven't even done that much -- just stuff around the house. Today I

* imported all the music from my desktop computer into iTunes on my laptop
* did some laundry
* did some dishes
* did some more laundry
* reattached the lint catcher thing in my washtub after it came off and stuck in the drain, which caused water to spill out of the washtub all over the basement floor
* set up the binary clock I got for Christmas
* put away a few Christmas decorations and presents
* caught up on some blog reading
* worked on a present I'm making for a friend's birthday
* worked on my costume for my showcase program for Saturday
* did two sudoku puzzles

None of those things should make me particularly tired. Maybe I'm still feeling the effects of staying out late the other night.

Four for Friday

From belicove.com:

Q1 - You: What one person, out of all the people you know, knows you the best and knows the most about you?

Probably Steph.

Q2 - Alongside You: If you were recovering from major surgery in a hospital and could have any person, from any era, recovering in the bed next to you, who would it be?

Chaucer.

Q3 - Your Computer: Is your computer's home page set to an Internet Service Provider, news/newspaper site, blog, search engine or portal such as Google or Yahoo, or something else? ow often do you change your hompage setting?

News.

Q4 - Your Work: Would you be willing to take a fifty percent (50%) cut in pay to pursue a career or job you were one hundred percent (100%) more passionate about than your current one? If not, what percent cut in pay would you be willing to take?


Nope. I like my job and if I took a 50% cut in pay, I would have to either stop eating or move in with my dad.

Boys I Like

...with apologies to Scott for shamelessly stealing his post title...

Johnny Weir. He's just so adorable! And so flaming...

You can watch Johnny in the men's long program at Nationals tomorrow afternoon. We're going to DVR it.

My continuing knee saga

I've been icing my knee on and off, and I've kept it wrapped during the day. Last night I decided not to skate this morning but to try it tonight. I only lasted about ten minutes, which was discouraging. Back crossovers hurt in both directions, although I can spin okay and jump a little. (Landing seems to involve a part of my knee that doesn't hurt, but bending before jump takeoffs doesn't feel so good.) It was a shame to waste such a perfect session -- I just got my skates sharpened, the ice was great, and there were only six of us there.

I think I'll still be able to compete next week if I take it easy. I know that there's only one other person in each of my events (in fact, it's the same person), and I don't want to let her down by not being there. I hope that they'd just add her to one of the other groups, but they don't have to do that, and I'd hate for her not to be able to compete because I got hurt.

After I got off the ice I went over to Steph's and watched the U.S. Nationals ladies' short program, which is still going on. It made me feel better. Live results (if anything's going on) are here.

Toe pick!

Tonight at Winter Club I had one of those falls where I wasn't even doing anything difficult. I was warming up forward crossovers and somehow I caught my toe pick and went flying. Unfortunately, I landed on my right knee. I don't think I tore anything, as I can still walk and skate, but it's going to make getting ready for the competition (not to mention climbing stairs) a lot more challenging.

Eleven days

I'm competing at the Deborah Burgoyne North American Invitational in Wyandotte, MI, on January 21. It's my sixth time skating in this all-adult competition. This year I'm doing two events: freestyle and showcase. Both of my programs are new, so my goal is to get through both of them without any major problems. A clean skate isn't likely for me at this point. I don't expect to land my loop in either program, as it's inconsistent at best and it also appears that I've temporarily lost it, but it would be a nice bonus. We'll see if it at least shows up for the practice Friday night -- it likes an audience.

Four for Friday

From belicove.com:

Q1 - You and Reality TV: If you were to star in your own reality television show/series, what would the title of your show be, and what would the show focus on?

I wouldn't have a reality show of my own, but I'd consider being on someone else's.

Q2 - Christmas Cards: Did you mail out any Christmas/Holiday cards in 2005? If so, approximately how many did you send verses receive?

I seem to have misplaced my 2005 sent list, but I think I sent about 23. I received 15.

Q3 - Terrorism and Air Travel: Do you feel more vulnerable to terrorism now that Cigar Cutters, Corkscrews, Cuticle Cutters, Eyeglass Repair Tools (including screwdrivers), Eyelash Curlers, Knitting and Crochet Needles, Nail Clippers, Nail Files, Personal care or toiletries with aerosols in limited quantities (such as hairspray), Scissors (plastic or metal with blunt tips only), Toy Transformer Robots, Toy Weapons (if not realistic replicas), Tweezers, Umbrellas and Walking Canes (allowed in carry-on baggage once they have been inspected to ensure that prohibited items are not concealed), and Wrenches and Pliers (seven inches or less in length) are allowed back on domestic flights along with carry-on luggage?

No.

Q4 - Going to the Movies: When searching for a movie or show time at a local theatre, do you refer to a daily newspaper, look it up online, or call the theatre directly?

I look it up online at imdb.com.

Meet Lucy

This is Lucy.

Welcome to my blog!

Can you hear me now? How about now? Now? :-)