TGIO

It's finally the end of this accursed glorious month of Thingadailies.

I decided to just go out with something easy:

I'm calling it "Self-portrait in mortar, tile, pure water rocks, and ichor".

We now return to our irregularly scheduled snark.

On Fire!

Today was one of those days when you just throw up your hands and say "Maybe it will all look better in the daylight on some other day!" and I'm not even talking about the stepping stone.

Last night I went to the coffee shop to get some things done, but they were having an event, so I ended up staying outside on the patio. They had firepits going, but it was still really, really cold.

If I'd been any closer to the flames, my arm would have been on fire. It took me a couple of hours to thaw when I got back home.

Because of last night's temps, I wasn't worried about getting my run in early, so I left with the big dog after 11am and I was wearing running pants. After a couple of miles I was getting kind of hot, but I kept going. Then we made it out to the emus and turned around and the sun was no longer in my face and we were running into a breeze and it was pretty pleasant. That's when everything fell apart.

First my music app stopped playing, so I had to stop to get that going again, and then a minute later the wind shifted and the fire that someone had going on the other side of the road (which I think just had branches, but who really knows?) gave off a bunch of smoke that blew into my face. If I'd been walking it would have been no big deal other than the smell, so I didn't even think about it until I found myself gasping for breath a ten feet later. Turns out that a sudden drop in air quality really doesn't help oxygenate your body while running.

I dropped to a walk for the next half mile or so. My right eye wouldn't stop streaming tears, so I kept having to wipe my face, and I was starting to feel dehydrated on top of that and it just... wasn't a good run.

BUT!

Apparently when the music app died, the running app also took a powder, but it still knew that it was supposed to be recording, so when I told it to stop it sprang back to life and gave me the funniest stats I've seen in a while.

So here are today's stats:

• Distance: 6.40 miles (That's probably accurate given the course.)
• Duration: 52:36 (Ha ha ha)
• Avg pace: 8:13 min/mi (HA HA HA HA HA)
• Calories: 895 (because apparently only the distance matters, not the fact that my shoes were smoking on the pavement because I was running so fast
• Fastest split: 4:08 min/mi (Seriously, I should be getting endorsements and shit at this point!)
• Roadkill: 2 (neither of which was the opossum which seems to have departed for other pastures)
• Number of emus seen: 0 (Not sure where they were -- maybe they moved somewhere else because of the nearby smoke.)

I also used the new "hands-free" leash today -- it has a belt that goes around my waist and then the leash clips on to that. I wouldn't suggest using it with a dog that isn't good on a leash because you would get zero warning before being pulled to a stop, but on the plus side, if I drop dead while running at least my dog won't wander off.

And now, today's project -- first a shot of the artichoke plant that provided the leaves that I've used:

It even handled the hard frost the other night.

I ran out of clothing dye, so I tried to make the outline with some acrylic paint. It's harder to do the outline with liquid paint than with powder. It should at least get an imprint from the leaf.

But yeah, maybe it will look better in some other daylight.

Maybe They Won't Look Better In The Daylight After All

For today's Thingadailies, the state of the steps:

The wonky tile pattern looks fine I guess. On the other hand, the pure river stones at the bottom of the sludge... didn't quite work out the way I'd hoped. And yeah, they're all falling out.

This one seems just sort of okay to me.  It does have a hint of blue in the concrete although that didn't really come through in this picture.

I still think the colors of these stones make it kind of fun:

And finally the new one which is using part of the plate I broke because why not? (There's a "What a crock(ery)!" joke in there someplace!)

Anyhow... they don't really look that much better in the daylight. Maybe at noon? Or maybe under the light of a full blue moon?

Artisan

Look up in the sky! It's a thing! It's a day! It's Thingadailies!

As a reminder to myself should I commit to Thingadailies again next year -- DO NOT PICK SOMETHING THAT REQUIRES YOU TO BE OUTSIDE EVERY DAY.

*ahem*

It was hailing earlier this evening.

Anyhow, I went with a pattern that looked a little more symmetric in my head. (Things often do.)

Still, the idea is not to make something that looks mass-produced and I think i can safely say that I have achieved that. Or else there is an army of three-year-olds pushing tiles into wet concrete somewhere. (Also possible.)

Intersection

I got home somewhat late, I'm hungry, and it's cold outside, so no Thingadailies.

Instead, I offer you this important chart (with unlabeled axes, yep) showing the progression of rice being cooked, and my hunger. Brown Basmati rice is supposed to take 50 minutes after it boils. That's crazy. I'm just trying to add something to this chili so it doesn't kill me.

There's a reason I don't invite people over for dinner...

No pineapple, no cake

This one is definitely putting the thing in Thingadailies.

Ha, so you thought yesterday's effort was simple. Well, allow me to introduce you to...

Yep, it's just mortar mix in a plastic container.

... or is it?

Okay, yeah, it pretty much is, but there are some blue pure water stones at the bottom, the idea being that when it comes out of the mold it will just be like a pineapple upside-down cake, except without the pineapple. Or the cake.

In other news I went for a run this morning because the big dog looked like he needed to go run (and he wasn't with me for the 10k on Sunday). I wasn't feeling sore at all, but we made it three miles and then my legs said "oh no, we're done here". It was a cold walk home. The big dog was not really that impressed with the whole outing.

And in other other news I made chili today and I went just a little tiny bit overboard on the heat and now I'm now sure what to do with it. The taste is actually pretty good, but whew, eating it is kinda painful. I might have to go buy some plain yogurt to tame it down.

Right. Well, at least there are only eight more days in the month.

Simplicity

Thingadailies. How many times do you suppose something has to be typed before the interwebs adds the word to the known list and it stops getting listed as misspelled? More than 28, I'm pretty sure.

After the whirlwind of yesterday (and the sadness of having to work on this, a holiday for a whole lot of people including all the contractors in the company), I decided to go with something simple for today. Also, it's cold (for us) and windy outside -- next year I'm picking a theme that doesn't involve going out of the house every night.

There's a touch of blue acrylic paint mixed in with the mortar -- I'm hoping it comes through when this cures.

 (Given the big crack in the garage floor visible in this photo, I'd say that maybe my next project should be re-pouring concrete for the garage, but if there's one thing this month has taught me, it's that I have no business doing anything with concrete...)

After helping my boss get Oracle, java, python, and R working in harmony on his new mac pretty much all day today, I spent some time this evening working on the author website. Some day I really will make it public, I swear, so that the world can ignore that website as well.