Kyu-Kido: Yellow Stripe Belt!

Today I earned yellow stripe belt in Kyu-Kido. I never thought I'd be learning martial arts at middle age! Here I am with my teacher, Master Blumreich.

Wonderful Birthday Weekend Travel

For my birthday, we went to Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Instead of being warm (like it was two weeks ago) it was cold! And it rained a lot.

No worries! When it was raining, we headed inside to the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville and saw wonderful art. We found a portrait in the museum from the 1800s of four Dickson boys, who may be my relatives. That was a surprise.

Then we walked over in the drizzle to an amazing tea house that had Indian food as well as the traditional tea sandwich kind of things you would expect. We also saw the house where my father lived while growing up. My grandparents were the original owners.

We found a terrific coffee shop, wonderful breakfast place, and a truly memorable locals' seafood restaurant. We tried three different microbreweries. Our favorite was Engine 15.

On the pier, we saw pelicans begging for food, and spotted a dolphin.

On our drive back home, we detoured to St. Simons' Island for lunch at my favorite cafe', Palm Coast. We walked the St. Simons' beach and through the neighborhood. I love it there.

Valentine Board Break

The dojo where Mitch and I study martial arts has a February fund raiser every year. It's a board break for Valentine's Day and the motto is, "break boards, not hearts."

I didn't break any because I've been getting hurt enough in class. I have an arm injury right now.

Here's Mitch breaking three boards at once!


Here's another one with two boards:

Hot Chocolate Run 15K

Earlier this month I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K in Atlanta with my husband, and my BFF ran her first race, the 5K division. Here we are at the Expo, picking up our race packets and the real reason we did this race, the technical hoodie! 15K is 9.3 miles and 5K is 3.1 miles.

The race started at the site of the 1996 Olympics near the Olympic flame. We could see it from our hotel.

There were twenty thousand runners! Big race.

Here we are before my friend took off for the 5K. Woo hoo!

This is a shirt I saw someone wearing on the course, LOVE IT.

Our 15K route through Atlanta. Very scenic course, through places I had not been before.

Hurting a little bit, or my smile would have been wider!

Mitch crossing the finish line! White shirt.

At the end, they gave us hot chocolate, chocolate fondue and dipping stuff...pretzels, marshmallows, Rice Crispies treats, wafer cookies and a banana. Lesson: I do NOT want chocolate after a long race. I want BEER. I had a really fun time, it was a great race.

What I Knitted & Crocheted 2012

Knits and crochets I finished in 2012

"Seychelles" shawlette, merino and silk

"Mistlethwait" shawl in merino

"Color Affection" shawl in merino and silk

"Timba" hat in acrylic, made this spur of the moment to wear to a Fall Festival.

I made THREE of these crocheted turkey hats for my husband, sister-in-law and me to wear in Thanksgiving races. Hubby and I ran a local Gobbler Run 5K wearing the hats, then all three of us wore them in a Thanksgiving morning 8K race. Acrylic.

Made a set of cotton baby bibs for another knitter who was expecting. She had a boy!

For Christmas, I crocheted Mitch a fancy neckwarmer in acrylic.

And I made Christmas cowls for my mom, sister, my friend and myself. "Persephone Cowl" out of bamboo rayon and merino.

WHEW! What a knitting and crochet year!

Christmas 2012 Part 1