BTW, I’m still making moderate success in my “world’s cutest husky” spam campaign. I get quite a few hits through google image search on that term, but recently got my first through yahoo image search (which I wasn’t really aware existed). As of this posting, Maija is one picture short of being EVERY SINGLE PHOTO on the front page of results for that term. It’s the little things, you know.

So here goes, in no particular order, ten of my most favorite posts of my best girl rockin the internets. maija swims lake cochituate – maija vs the lunar eclipse – maija vs peanut butter bagel – the maija nell fan club – maija wins the dog-a-palooza – snowing in Allston for Husky Dü – stuff my dog hides under – maija wrassles zed – a mediafriend-powered 529 – maija’s christmas present. And a bonus link for the best of all tags. Have any links you like better than these? Let us know in the comments below!

Also, an entirely gratuitous bonus birthday slideshow from my maija flickr set. Or if you’d rather, you can check it here in full screen. And a promise, after today, no more dog stuffs for a while.

Yesterday was National Running Day so the dogbrake and I did a midweek 8 to celebrate. It was surprisingly warm out, finally fog free, some welcoming summer sun. The run was unremarkable until near the end, where we found the wind coming off Ocean Beach to be in full-on sandblast mode.

Along the sea wall there are a series of stairwells down to the beach, some of which fill up with sand forming a ski jump-like spout for the rest of their gritty neighbors to ride up and out of, into the face of everyone passing by. So despite gorgeous, magic hour lighting at sunset, turning to look towards the water was not really an eyesight preserving option.

Eventually, DPW will send a truck out and someone will languorously shovel the sand that builds up on the sidewalk back to the beach through these smaller spouts that must be designed just for this. They don’t worry about job security – the wind is always going to blow in from the ocean, making its incremental effort to inch San Francisco eastward. Will this work? Look at the geographic change in the last 15,000 years. It almost seems inevitable that, given enough time, all of this will eventually just blow away.

But for now, we keep our heads down and earn back our elevation up along the cliffs, turn east along Point Lobos, the wind now at our backs and gravity taking us the rest of the way home.

I vacuumed this morning. I vacuumed yesterday. I’m vacuuming again right now. I’m embarrassed to walk her down the street in the wind due to the hairy cloud enveloping everyone within a block. It’s time for the annual dunk in boiling water. Or failing that I’m open to other suggestions.

I don’t usually run with a camera. Running is a sweaty mess prone to being interrupted by rain and sandstorms and between managing the dog’s gopher-lunges, her collection of poop bags and trying not to lose my keys I’ve got enough junk to carry. But given that we were so very lazy today and didn’t get out for a planned photowalk I rigged up a contraption to bring the TZ5 with me.

I was reading something in Salon the other day on the variation in range of human field of vision, depending on velocity.

When you walk, your field of vision is nearly 180 degrees, 140 degrees of which feeds your awareness. The Optometrists Association of Australia reports that human field of vision “is reduced with increasing speed.” For example, at 62 mph, field of vision contracts to 40 degrees.

Given my average running speed and bloodflow diversion I wouldn’t be surprised if my running field of vision is somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees. So it was nice to make a few conscious decisions to stop, look at things, try to make a small visual record. I have one of the most gorgeous running routes on the planet, yet over time I need to remind myself of that now and again.

This week brought in another donation in my Youth Run4Fun fundraiser – thanks hondo! That donation was doubled, leaving me at 34% of my $250 goal. Here’s my mileage update – it was a good week! This will serve to preemptively counter next week’s inevitable Red Sox related decline…

MILEAGE UPDATE: week 3 (of 18)
	Actual	Goal
Weekly	26.9	22
Three week rolling average	24.9	23.7

]]> http://www.quasify.com/a-brief-pause-on-our-uphill-section/feed/ 0 http://www.quasify.com/late-onset-herbivorism/ http://www.quasify.com/late-onset-herbivorism/#comments Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:26:53 +0000 nathanael http://www.quasify.com/?p=1847 .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

My recent interest in plant derived poisons isn’t so much out of concern for myself as it is for the critter in the household. Over the last week or so, she’s shifted into high plant consumption mode, reverse peristalsis consequences be damned. I have patiently tried to explain to her that we as a society have gone to great lengths to process all the old and tired racehorses into little kibble pellets for a reason, but she insists on snarfing up greenery like a cloven-hoofed ungulate. This isn’t completely novel behavior but it’s been a few years since she’s done this, and the persistence and aggressiveness related to the current phenomenon is unlike anything she’s shown before. I’m tempted to assume there was some sort of vegan brainwashing that went on between her and my recent houseguest.

The newest awesomeness from over at the Maija Nell Fan Club pool, part of YJP’s 365. For a minute there, I thought she was trying to poison my dog with nasty vegetables! My 365 still has her beat when we calculate the relevant “world’s cutest husky” per thousand photos ratios.

And myself as well. In total, 18 miles on foot today. I think we’re going to bed early.