Things I did today

I scheduled a 5k after I finished my 5k in September. I figured the temperatures wouldn't drop too low yet. After all, the usual high around this time of year is high 60s and low of high 40s. Last year the high was 70 and the low was 60. No problem! When I got up, the temperature was 36 degrees. When the race started, it had warmed all the way up to 40 degrees. I wore a headband earwarmer, light long sleeve tee, light jacket and the warmest leggings I own. It was a really tough course, as it was up and down hills. None of the hills were huge, but it just seemed like a constant change in elevation and not too many times to have a rest. However, it ended up being my fastest time ever at 44:07! I was really happy about that. I had done a run on Wednesday at the gym and managed 44:28, so this was great! It didn't feel like I was gaining much - and looking at the results, it seems like almost all of the runners were real runners. The last place person finished in less than 52 minu

Yesterday evening, I went to a wine tasting in the store Total Wine and More. The $20 covered 8 generous tasting pours and 8 pieces of different cheeses, roughly 1 ounce per cheese. To cut a long story short, I tasted all 8 wines and 7 of the cheeses, but none of the wines were at a price point along with the taste that I would want. The champagne and Gruyere combo worked very well. The Chevre cheese was absolutely excellent. The wine and cheese combos: #1 Bernard Bremont Grand Cru Brut Champagne Gruyere #2 Staete Landt Duchess Sauvignon Blanc  Chevre #3 Armani Pinot Grigio Colle Ara Asiago #4 Sonoma Loed Pinot Noir Dutton Ranch Havarti #5 Diosares Rioja Crianza Manchego #6 Sextant Zinfandel Holystone Cheddar #7 Mascota Vineyards Cabernet Big Bat Gouda #8 Chateau Miselle Sauternes Blue Cheese

This morning, the company sponsored a Halloween Costume Contest. We had Medusa, an 80s exercising lady, some of the main characters from Jurassic Park (including the T Rex!), a Hogwarts student wearing the Sorting Hat, the Holy Ghost, the Navigator from Forbidden Desert, a firefly, and I was Hermoine Granger again. There were three categories of winners: Funniest, which went to the Holy Ghost Most Original, which went to the Navigator and Best Overall, given to the Jurassic Park crew. Next year perhaps I'll wear a wig and perform actual magic to win the Best Overall.

I had several things I wanted to accomplish this evening. Leave work at 5, get to gym at 5:30, run 3.1 miles, stop at Food Lion, do two loads of laundry and go to bed around 10. It seemed like I planned a busy evening. I ended up not leaving work until 6, got home at 6:30, started laundry, went to the gym at 7, ran 3.1 miles, left at 7:45, went to Food Lion, got home around 8:20 and continued the laundry. Tomorrow is the company Halloween party, so I'm reprising my Hermoine Granger role and needed a few things washed and dried. It's 9:15 and the second load of laundry is in the dryer. Hopefully everything will be dry by 9:30 so I can still go to sleep at 10. While I waited for the first load to dry, I unloaded the dishwasher and tied my tie. I knew I didn't want to deal with that at 6:30 in the morning tomorrow. I feel really great and really tired getting all that done! I'm glad I didn't quit or postpone anything since I started everything an hour later than I

This weekend, I attended an awesome Halloween party, and even dressed up as Hermoine Granger. I admit, it was a bit fun to dress up as Hermoine Granger. I took a lot of thought for my costume. I started searching for costumes on August 26th, and found a costume site on September 13th:  https://www.moviescostume.com/harry-potter-gryffindor-uniform-hermione-granger-cosplay-costume-adults-ver.html However, I didn't want to just drop over $100 on a costume I'll likely only wear once. What else can I do? Can I just build the costume from regular clothes? After all, Hermoine mostly wore a school uniform for the first few movies. Certainly I could do that. I set off to build my uniform. I got the skirt from Lands End. The socks , blazer , patch ,  tie  and wand from Amazon. The shirt came from J Jill, but I bought that about ten years ago or so, and the shoes I purchased last year from Belk. I referenced this guide to learn how to tie a Full Windsor Knot, a tie style wit

I enjoy playing Geoguessr 's Daily Challenge and don't want to forget what I've done, nor how well I fared. I've created a blog just to post my challenge results with my friend Tim Jenkins and the maps I do on my own. You can view the blog here: https://geoguessr.lauraqjohnson.com/ He and I usually score within the top 10 percent of all challengers, though there are people who must be cheating/using different rules, as I'd think it impossible to pinpoint a spot in rural Russia within a few yards. The rules Tim and I use: you can use your own knowledge (like I've learned a lot about US state routes since starting this) but you can't look up anything on Google while you play. It makes it much more difficult and irritating, especially when you've heard of a particular town you're near, but you don't remember where exactly it's located on the map. It won't be a daily blog, but likely a near daily blog, as the game is something I

Do something anyway. It's a gray cloudy day over here, and I feel rather miserable. I slept poorly and even in full daylight, the lighting seems more like 6pm in the evening. I could: Write Read Play piano Go to the gym Go for a run outside Have a nap It certainly doesn't seem that difficult, but when you're only on 4 hours of sleep, everything seems extra awful. I decide to have a nap. My brain decides it's time instead to think about the dream I had last night where I came home from a party, and my previously clean apartment was covered in bugs because there was a pizza crust left in my kitchen garbage. Thanks, brain. That'll definitely help me fall asleep. Shockingly, I did not fall asleep. I'm back, reading, trying to find something to write about. Nothing seems to grab my interest - probably because I'm tired! I am looking forward to restarting my relaxing sleep routine in the evening. And I'm starting to feel a bit better, just becau