the no. 1 ladies' detective agency
wednesday, december 31, 2003

in the grand tradition of consuming fiction while on vacation, this week i have read the no. 1 ladies' detective agency by alexander mccall smith. about a woman in south africa who sets up shop as a private detective, using her busybody nature and cleverness to solve cases in unexpected ways. there are interesting criminals, but the real strength of this book is in its portrayal of the simple, honest protagonist and her process of learning as she goes.

this is the first book in a series, and i will most certainly seek out and read the others: tears of the giraffe, morality for beautiful girls, and the kalahari typing school for men.

aimee mann
friday, december 26, 2003

the moth... on my new acoustic-electric from my love.

christmas
friday, december 26, 2003

my mom gave me the best and most unexpected christmas gift: letters from my first computer class, back in 1988. one from the teacher, and another from the director.

i don't remember gigi, but i later took a class with jeff, memorialized in this newspaper picture (courtesy of jen. i'm at the computer, and she's the blonde with her hand on my shoulder).

i am so delighted that mom found these notes.

gillian welch
tuesday, december 23, 2003

elvis presley blues... because he shook it like a chorus girl.

like a little fishy
tuesday, december 23, 2003

this morning i swam .62 miles (1,100 yards):

• 200 yards warmup
• 100 yards fingertip drill
• 100 yards freestyle with pull buoy
• 50 yards flutterkick with kickboard
• a set alternating freestyle and breaststroke: 100, 50, 100, 50, 50, 50
• 150 yards freestyle sprints
• 100 yards cooldown

my fastest time on the 100 freestyle was 2:03. i did 50 freestyle in :56. my fewest strokes in one length was 21.

since the breathing breakthrough, i am now working on following through with my arms at the bottom of each stroke. in freestyle it's like a question mark, and thinking about this helps immensely. in breastroke it's a big circle.

i think i'm taking a week off from swimming over the holidays. we'll see how tough it is when i start back up!

concrete blonde
monday, december 22, 2003

you're the only one... for a nice little G C G thang.

a little patsy cline
sunday, december 21, 2003

i fall to pieces... enjoy the slide from d7 to c#7 to c.

graceland, graceland
wednesday, december 17, 2003

my two favorite cds right now are paul simon's graceland, and aimee mann's songs on the magnolia soundtrack. i used to own graceland on tape, and i played it on so many trips to college or home, singing every single word. marcia just made me a cd with the aimee mann stuff, with the special addition of bob dylan's most of the time.

these cds are relaxing, soothing to me. there are many truths in the lyrics, and the music both carries the words and holds its own.

sprinting
tuesday, december 16, 2003

swimming was good this morning. while i was warming up, the water felt heavy and resistant. i worked on my breathing and arms. my breathing is improving -- i spend less energy on holding my head up and gasping awkwardly. i also did tons of drills with the pull buoy, then a set of 50-50-75-100, and a couple sprints. sprinting is really enlivening. you focus on your power and on the goal, and for one glorious length of the pool you are something incredible.

sad and angry songs
sunday, december 14, 2003

for the past week i have been playing gillian welch's elvis presley blues, and concrete blonde's version of tomorrow, wendy. both songs address loss, but in different ways. one is angry at god for a premature ending. the other laments by reflecting on the life and talents lost. i am glad for this juxtaposition. there are so many feelings that come up.

50-100-75-25
friday, november 5, 2003

victory! this morning i swam those 250 yards of freestyle like nobody's business. oh yeah, oh yeah.

swimming, songs, new sites
wednesday, december 3, 2003

after two weeks off, i had a swimming lesson yesterday. it was great! in the hour we worked on endurance and sprinting doing freestyle, then we worked on breastroke. every week i can feel myself getting stronger, cleaner, better than i was. it is a fantastic feeling.

guitar lessons have also been very rewarding. i am becoming much more comfortable at strumming with a pick. this week i'm playing strong enough by sheryl crow, and tangled up in blue by bob dylan.

i recently found the website 101 cookbooks where this woman tries recipes from her vast collection, then writes about them and posts delicious photos. i also came upon when i ride my bike which is an artsy weblog about creativity, by a canadian illustrator who also keeps a blog in french called montreal vu d'ici.

navigate

back to archives