This week's winner is …

MamaKaren!

(And if you click through to her blog, be sure to scroll down and read her take on the chicken wars. If I'd weighed in on that subject – and I wanted to, but thought better of it – she says what I wanted to say, only with much less emotion. Suffice it to say I have gay family members and family members who supported CFA Appreciation Day. Blech.)

Anyway, congratulations to Karen! If you will e-mail me at shrinking knitter AT gmail DOT com with your snail-mail address, I'll pop your yarn in the mail.

If you didn't win and you really wanted to, stay tuned for more goodies coming up later today. I kind of dropped the ball on searching the stash yesterday to come up with this week's offer, but will get it together before the end of the day.

Now to answer a couple questions:

1. I missed watching President Obama's address to BlogHer'12. I'm not much for watching videos online, I'm not sure why. I am going to go back and watch Usain Bolt's gold-medal winning run in the 100m dash. And I'll try to watch my President talking to the BlogHer crowd.


2. I don't run at all any more. I used to. A lot. I've finished three half-marathons and the Army Ten-Miler. My mind loves to run, but my body, at my current weight, doesn't. I would be more comfortable if I were at least 30 pounds lighter and every additional pound lost would add to the comfort level. It's also easier to get hurt when you're an obese runner, so I've been taking the slow road. And, finally, my husband was with me at the Army Ten-Miler in 2008, where a young fit man collapsed and died near the finish line. He is not a fan of my taking up running again. So there's that.


3. Cilantro is not a cut-and-come-again plant, like basil or lettuce or spinach. It's best started from seed, and all of the gorgeous, lush cilantro I was enjoying in June is now brittle and dry and gone to seed. Which isn't a bad thing, except I should have staggered my initial plantings a little more frequently. If yours has also gone to seed, those seeds will drop and replant themselves (I'm going to throw a layer of compost over mine to help it out). If you're going through a dry spell, water it regularly. A friend of mine was harvesting fresh cilantro last December!

Thank you all for your lovely anniversary wishes. We talked together yesterday morning, the first time I've walked in a long, long time. Since before the storm hit (June 29), actually. He does his four daily miles faithfully, and I, um, don't. I'm paying for the walk this morning. One probably shouldn't restart a walking program with a three-miler in a pair of Vibram Five Fingers. I have blisters on both feet and some soreness. But it's a good soreness, one that tells me I did something positive for my body and my mind.

Now to keep it up.

Back later ...