Three things of note today:

1) I donated blood for the fourth time this morning.

2) I can now name 22 different parts of a Japanese sword/scabbard (mune, ha, hi, shinogi, same, sageo, tsuka, tsuba, etc.)

3) I now fit into a size 8. That was a definite "Shut UP!!" moment.

I just got home from the Superun (25th anniversary!), benefitting Special Olympics. It was a very difficult run, due to the heat and the humidity. Actually, I was doing pretty well up until just a little past Ravine Drive. I made it up the hill (a lot of people only walked it), but I had an asthma attack about a minute after hitting the top. Even WITH the hill, even with the heat, humidity, and the fact that I haven't really run in almost two weeks because of my ankle, I still came in at 37 minutes, which isn't bad for me at all.

I'll do a lot better at my next two 5Ks, which are about a day and a half from each other in the third week of July.

Today also marks one and a half years, exactly, on Weight Watchers. What a way to celebrate, hey? Running 3.1 miles in about 70% humidity.

Saturday was the first time I've been under 150 pounds since I was 16 years old, so I've been hitting all sorts of milestones and special occasions lately.

Officially I'm down 116.2 pounds, with 16.8 ^@&!ing pounds to go. They aren't kidding when they say the last 20 are a bitch to lose.

So, naturally, since I have less than a week until my next 5K race, my ankle that I've sprained numerous times decides to start acting up.

Right now it doesn't hurt a lot, but if I run on it, I know it will. Hmm. Debating whether or not to just rest it and rely on my conditioning for the race, or chance pushing it, possibly injure it further, in an attempt to make sure that I'm cardiovascularly at my peak.

In other news, Happy Summer Solstice. :)

Direct Ninja Training

I often talk about how "everything is Ninja training." Well, tonight in Jujutsu, everything WAS Ninja training. Good class.

In related news...I passed 8th Kyu! So did Keith! Tay for us. :) Sensei gave us some much-appreciated critiques, and told me a couple of things I wish I had known before.

We begin 7th Kyu on Saturday (hopefully). A week from tomorrow is our next 5K.

My Star Wars group is going pretty well

My boyfriend, bless his heart, is the biggest Star Wars fan I know, and has been running Star Wars (d6) for years now, but no one has ever really run a campaign for him to actually play in. Not until a few weeks ago, when I took it upon myself to do just that.

So far the players seem to like it. I have them as Apprentices getting ready for their trials, and my NPC, their Jedi Master, is a Togrutan female. Yeah, ok, so I like Shaak Ti. Can't help it.

<---total geek

Definitely Ninja training

I can't wait for Weapons class tonight. Sensei can give me as many sword cuts to do as he wants. A thousand sword cuts? You got it. I have some extra energy I really need to burn off, and, bad as I am at Weapons in general, I'm looking forward to making my Daijodan no kamae as good as possible. My ichimonji is a lot better (and sometimes I actually hit it when I should be going into a Jujutsu stance), and I'm learning more of the parts of the sword. Samurai swords have a LOT of parts and names, all in Japanese, of course. It's not as simple as "hilt, pommel, crossguard, blade, etc."

I get blanket invitations to seminars at my company. I've never been to one, but I'm *positive* that they come up with the names for the seminars by letting a cat run across the keyboard:

Epoxyeicosatrienoic Acids: Mediators of Endothelium-Dependent Dilation in Coronary Arteries