recap

A snapshot of my day | 8/10/2021

August 11, 2021 filed under: about me, daily life, recap

I stole this idea from Stephany (who adapted it from another blog friend) because it was a fun way to write a recap “day in the life”-style, which I haven’t done in a while.

Time I woke up: 6:00 a.m. Tuesdays are my run days and I usually get out for a 4-5 mile run around 6:30 am.

First thing I did upon waking: I turned off my alarm and got dressed for my run. I usually put everything out the night before so I don’t have to make any “decisions” in the morning and can just go. This is key to a successful workout routine in my opinion. Don’t even give your brain the chance to talk you out of it on a technicality (like clothing).

Today’s weather: Hot AF. 100F.

An out-of-the-ordinary thing that happened today: My project-lead and I had really productive work meeting with some colleagues from the East Coast, who are doing the same type of remote sensing work (change detection from SfM (structure-from-motion) aerial photography and LiDAR (light-detection-and-ranging) laser scan data) that we do. (Let me know if you want me to elaborate on what I do all day in a separate post – ha!)

Sometimes people in the science community can be a bit stand-offish, but these guys were super-responsive and very excited to exchange experiences and insights on our workflows and it’s been just so exhilarating to talk about our project with them.

Last thing I read (not on the Internet): A postcard from my nephew (he’s 11). (It says “when do we see each other again?)

Last thing I read (on the Internet): A remote sensing article.

Last website I visited: Google Maps (for work). Have I mentioned that I LOVE looking at maps?

Last show I watched: Schitt’s Creek. We’re almost finished with the series and need to look for a new series to watch. Any recommendations? Must be light-hearted and funny.

Last thing I said: “Enjoy your walk” (when Jon left for his afternoon walk).

Last thing I ate: oat crunch with strawberries.

What I was doing an hour ago: I was working on a dataset in Excel.

What I will be doing an hour from now: I’ll be making dinner. It’s German potato salad and kielbasa sausage tonight.

Current whereabouts of other members of the household: Jon is on his daily walk.

One thing I crossed off my to-do list today: I was evaluating a dataset that we received last week and had to write a summary for my co-workers about my findings of completeness, inconsistencies, questionable entries, and such.

It’s a bit tedious to write this all down, but I’ve gotten into the habit of keeping very detailed notes (in a searchable word document), so that I can always go back to tasks that I’ve done in the past and understand what I was working on and what kind of problems I ran into. You wouldn’t believe how valuable this kind of thing is when someone comes at you with a question for a project that you worked on 3 years ago (yes, that happened).

What was the last thing you ate and what out-of-the-ordinary thing happened to you this week?

A year in review: 2020

December 31, 2020 filed under: my so-called life, recap, review

How do you sum up this godforsaken year?

Well, let me say first: this has by no means been the hardest year of my life. I’ve personally had more challenging years, but it’s hard to ignore the fact of what we’ve all been through collectively in 2020.

I’m writing this from a place of immense privilege and I know it. I really didn’t have much to complain about this year. I am a homebody by nature and going into lockdown and isolation hasn’t cramped my style as it has for other, more extroverted people. I transitioned nearly seamlessly to a WFH life (and actually like it!), I kept up a good running routine, I was mostly fine with not seeing people (except for my family’s canceled visit this summer), and Jon and I have been content with being around each other all the time. Even if we occasionally lamented the fact that we couldn’t go out to dinner or get away for the weekend, we both agreed that we were making the best of a shitty situation and things could be a lot worse.

The only things that matter at the end of this crazy year are that we both remained healthy, I kept my job (and income), we were able to pay our bills and feed ourselves, we could go for runs and walks, and had a private outdoor space to enjoy. We’ve been luckier than so many.

I contemplated if I wanted to recap this year as I have previous years, but for the sake of consistency and the mere fact that 2020 happened, as much as we would like to just wish it away, here’s my recap of this weird year.

JANUARY

In January, as always, we welcomed the new year with coffee and a New Year’s pretzel. I posted my list of things I wanted to do in 2020. Surprisingly, while many plans ended up being derailed, I accomplished almost all of them. The highlight of January was a women’s retreat in Tahoe with a full day of skiing over MLK weekend. I had hoped to get back on the slope last winter, but alas, that ended up not happening.

FEBRUARY

In February, I picked my word for the year. I am not sure I really lived up to it. I attended an “author’s workshop” at work, which I should have taken years ago (given the time I’ve been working at my current workplace). I met Kathrin, a fellow German living in the Bay Area, for the first time in person and also saw Ute, a fellow German living in CT, again after many years. I abandoned my bullet journal and found a new favorite planner. I started half marathon training.

MARCH

In March, I talked about why voting is so important. I celebrated my birthday, just before the whole world shut down. The new motto became “flatten the curve!“. It took me a little while to get my blogging footing back, and I started a series – blogging through the Covid-19 crisis – to document my own experience of the Covid-shutdown, not knowing that we were in for a long, wild ride.

APRIL

In April, I started to sew masks. Like so many of us. My gym shut down and I started running in the early mornings before work. It was the only thing I knew how to do. I baked zucchini bread. I settled into my work from home routine. My friend Tanja was supposed to come visit and run the American River Parkway Half Marathon with me at the end of the month. Of course, that didn’t happen. Instead, we ran the race virtually, each in our own neighborhoods, and even though it was unexpected, I finally got my (unofficial) sub-2 hour PR in the half marathon this year. Who could have seen that coming?

MAY

I started baking bread with a sourdough starter that I received from a friend in late April. It’s been the most cliché and the best ‘new’ hobby that has come from this pandemic. I have baked every weekend since. We got our outdoor space ready for the summer and Jon and I celebrated our 14th anniversary.

George Floyd died at the hand of police in Minneapolis and racial tensions flared up big time.

JUNE

In June, I celebrated Global Running Day and ran for a good cause. I tried to confront being uncomfortable, educate myself, share resources, and stand in solidarity with the black community. I know there is tons more work to do. I shared some running lessons during Corona times and also posted another update of my blogging through the Covid-19 crisis series.

JULY

In July, I had some thoughts on Independence Day. I made our own variation of a Classic Niçoise Salad. I talked about how I fit a workout into a busy day, and how I got my sister to run a half marathon (We were supposed to run the half marathon together in San Francisco this summer, but that didn’t happen and I am so proud of her that she still continued her training and ran the distance!). We spent many summer evenings barbecuing in the backyard.

AUGUST

In August, I kept up with my early morning runs and witnessed many beautiful sunrises along the river. I also shared my strength training routine. I wrote another blogging through the Covid-19 crisis update. I got my (road) bike fixed up and went on a bike ride, followed the presidential debates, and send snail mail just because.

SEPTEMBER

In September, I bought a spin bike. Probably the best pandemic purchase of the year. It arrived just before the California wildfires caused major smoke plumes and locked us into our homes for weeks. I had officially worked from home for six months. I shared all the things I baked in quarantine. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and I wondered what else 2020 was going to throw at us. I posted the recipe for quick 4-ingredient Almond Butter Oat Cookies.

OCTOBER

In October, I talked about the importance of rest days. I urged people to vote in the presidential election. We celebrated Jon’s birthday, and I ordered Stumptown coffee for him. I wrote another Covid-19 update.

NOVEMBER

In November, I participated in NaBloPoMo for the 14th year! I blogged my way through the last few days of the election. It was finally confirmed that we elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It’s most likely been the highlight of this year and gives hope to so many of us. I became an ambassador for MudLOVE and am thrilled to support such an awesome small business. For Thanksgiving, we stayed home, I ran a virtual Turkey Trot with Tanja in the morning and then prepared a ~~turkey~~ chicken with all the trimmings just for the two of us. That weekend, I also baked my family’s Spritz Cookies to start the holiday season off on the right foot.

DECEMBER

In December, I bought a bigger and nicer Christmas tree. I was set on making this holiday season great, Covid be damned, and for whatever reason, that tree made me so very happy. I also shared a holiday wish & gift list (because those are always fun!) and sent out a bunch of ~~Christmas~~ New Year’s cards.

Shortly before Christmas, Covid-19 hit closer to home than I ever wanted it to. Someone in my family tested positive, after being so vigilant for months. I understand this is bad news if your family lives around the corner, but emotionally it’s on a different level when you’re 6000 miles away. I definitely freaked out there for a second, because you never know how this virus is going to affect someone, and I am only willing to share this now because nobody else contracted the virus (thank god) and the person, who had it, never developed symptoms. We got so very lucky.

But I want to warn you that however ‘safe’ you feel and however cautious you think you are, do better. There are still no guarantees that you won’t catch it (we all have to take some risks, however small they might be) and this will only get better if we’re are all willing to make sacrifices, to stay home as much as possible, and to mask up when we’re in public.

I told you about how we spent our Christmas this year and also summed up my ten best pandemic purchases.

And now we’re ringing in a new year, safely from the comfort of our own couch, hoping that 2021 will shape up to be a much kinder year for us all.

RECAPS FROM PREVIOUS YEARS:

2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.

Monthly Recap | February

February 29, 2020 filed under: my so-called life, recap

I feel lucky that we’re getting this extra day in February this year (every extra day is great in my book, haha!) and I am taking advantage to post my monthly recap today. Do I sound like a broken record, when I say, that February disappeared as quickly as it came? Or, is it just me?

READ

I finished ROAR: How to Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology for Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong, Lean Body for Life by Stacy Sims. I thought it was very good and had a lot of valuable information and I can see myself referring back to this book a lot going forward.

COOKED

We made turkey cutlets with homemade sweet potato fries and roasted veggies quite a few times this month. So easy, so satisfying.
When we love something, we tend to make it over and over (do you do that, too?). Same goes for a heavily adapted, lighter version of Zuppa Toscana (I won’t even link to the original recipe, as we changed it quite a bit, but needless to say, it was a favorite around here). I am committed to making soup as often as I can before it gets too warm for hot soups (haha, I am typing this as our temperature hit close to 80F yesterday).

WATCHED

I watched part of the Academy Awards at the beginning of February and realized that I hadn’t seen any recent movies in, like, forever. To remedy that, I watched “Marriage Story” on Netflix and am hoping to catch up on another few that won awards. Which ones have you seen and would recommend?

LISTENED TO

I listened to a few guided runs on the Nike Run Club App. I also listened to a lot of NPR this month. They always have such good coverage of the day-to-day news. Do you listen to your local public radio station?

BOUGHT

I bought a couple of new workout clothes on sale at Old Navy, running tights and a sports bra. I also got a BlenderBottle® (as I am experimenting with some protein powders) and some underwear from Target (TMI, ha). Oh, and we got flights to go down to SoCal in March.

RAN (and cycled)

I ran 55 miles and cycled 59 miles in February. This is up from January and I am happy about it. Let’s see how March goes.

GOING-ONS

+ In case you missed it, I finally (settled on) and shared my One Little Word® for this year: Cultivate. What’s yours?

+ There was some girl time this month! I got to meet my long-time IG and blog friend Kathrin for the first time (after following each other online for quite a while) and I also got to see my friend Susi again and reunite with Ute, when she was visiting the Bay Area.

+ I mentioned in one of my Five Things Friday posts that I attended an author training class at work earlier this month and it was so, so valuable. At my work-place, publications are super-duper important and I honestly don’t know why nobody (as in, my supervisor(s)) had me take this class earlier).

+ I started half marathon training again a couple of weeks ago. I “merged” two training plans that I found online to make a plan that fits my schedule and goals. I have to admit, I am so, so happy to finally be following a training plan again. I do pretty well without a plan, but I just love the ease of not having to think about what kind of workout I’ll do on any given day, when I can simply follow a plan.

+ I enjoyed the beautiful spring weather that we had here in Northern California (although it was also one of driest Februarys in history and that’s never a good look!). I was able to run in t-shirts and get out my sandals.

+ Are you at all following the primaries? I know, some people are tuning out and I am going back and forth between trying to stay in the know and just waiting to see what happens. I am so glad we’re part of Super Tuesday voting this year. California deserved a more prominent voting spot in the primary season. I already cast my ballot, but I can’t wait to see what happens.

How was your February?

Women’s retreat at Tahoe

February 3, 2020 filed under: holidays, recap, travel, weekend

My friend Susi invited me along for a girls’ weekend with some of her mom friends from German School. We were headed to Tahoe over the MLK holiday weekend and stayed at U’s vacation home in Truckee. I was thrilled to get up to the mountains during winter time and very thankful that I was invited to come along.

It’s always a little awkward when you join a group of people that you mostly don’t know and my introverted self was a little bit anxious, but as so often, the worry was unnecessary and dissipated quickly once we had all introduced each other. We ended up having a really great time.

We arrived around 6 pm at Friday night in a winter wonderland. I couldn’t have been happier.

We had previously talked about things we wanted to do while we were there, and besides some outdoor activities during the day, we had all agreed on just hanging out at the house, cooking together, puzzling, reading, knitting/crocheting, and just enjoying each others’ company.

We also played Cards Against Humanity, which I had heard about, but had never played before. Well, let’s just say that it’s true that it’s “a party game for horrible people”, because some of the card statements made me either blush or drop my jaw. However, I am wondering what it says about me that I didn’t just win this game once, but twice over the weekend.

As J noted: still waters run deep.

Some of the women went cross country skiing on Saturday, while Susi and I and C hung out at the house. We went on a nice snow walk around the neighborhood and then started (the first of two) puzzle(s) when we got back.

The puzzle was really cool: the posters of all the U.S. National Parks.

We started a second puzzle in the evening and everybody got involved.

On Sunday, Susi and I had planned to go downhill skiing, but the week before the getaway, Susi had injured her knee and couldn’t participate in any sporting activities. As I didn’t know if anyone else wanted to go, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get to go skiing after all, but luckily, three others wanted to go and so we headed over to Homewood Mountain Resort on the western shore of Lake Tahoe in the morning.

I have my ski boots here in California, but don’t own skis anymore, so I had to rent them and I almost toppled over backwards when I heard that they wanted $99 for just the ski rental for the day. Gosh, Tahoe’s expensive. But hey, there was no backing out now.

Luckily, I had already bought the lift ticket for a discount at REI.

I was a little taken aback by the “outdatedness” of the ski resort. The ticket had to be scanned by hand (I was used to automatic scanners that read the ski ticket through your jacket) and when we got to the chair lift, it didn’t have a safety bar. I’ve never seen that in the Alps.

BUT: once I hit the slopes, it was blissful. Originally, we had planned to ski for a half day, but in the end, we spent 6 hours on the slopes. The others were beginners, so we took the easier runs most of the time, but that was fine with me. I was just happy to be skiing! The day was a little overcast, which was great because the snow stayed great the whole time.

And the views! Just amazing! We kept going back for more and spent 6 hours on the slopes!

Sunday night was for a movie, a delicious dinner, and face masks before we all headed to bed. We had planned to head back home early on Martin Luther King Jr Day to beat the holiday traffic, so the last night was an early night for all of us.

It was a really great weekend though and I am so glad I was asked to come along!

Did you do something fun over the long holiday weekend?

Monthly Recap | January

January 31, 2020 filed under: my so-called life, recap

Can you believe that January is already over? I feel like we just celebrated New Year’s Eve. Gah. I can’t be the only one. But here we are, it’s January, 31st and we’re doing the monthly recap. Let’s do this.

READ

Three books! 2020 reading is off to a pretty good start. One of the books I read was “The love prison made and unmade” by Ebony Roberts, a memoir about the toll prison takes on people and their loved ones. Powerful and heart-breaking.