Photos from January Hawaii trip: http://www.coloringthevoid.com/photos/2006/2007/2007-01-13%20Hawaii%20Trip/index.htm

Also, updated 2006 photos: http://www.coloringthevoid.com/photos/2006/2006 (Red, you'll just love some of these.)

Inspired by Ellen's new blog, His, Mine, Everyone's, I'm motivated to report on things besides running again.

Sunday, 12/3/06, was our 2-year anniversary. Michael celebrated by writing his final paper to finish up grad school. Whew! I celebrated by run/walking 18 miles and nearly breaking both legs. Double Whew! We celebrated together this past Saturday at The Mint, where we sang songs, drank drinks, and did deeds. Michael wore the new shirt I got him:


Then we went back to the Inn San Francisco bed and breakfast where we stayed on our wedding night. It was just like starting over. Except that Will's kids weren't there the next day to wake us up. And we didn't have lots of presents to carry home to Taft Avenue. Instead, we went for a run in the city, enjoyed a hot tub at the gym, and returned home to Hermann Street, where (we think) the landlord doesn't want to evict us.

Christmas is coming, and New Year's. I think I'll come up with some resolutions in the next few days.

What are yours???

Last Saturday, Michael and I went over to Nancy and David's to watch Myth Busters and find out what went wrong on the 4th of July. Don't let this happen to you:





First of all, we used the WRONG MENTOS! We didn't know there was more than one kind. We bought apple Mentos and cinnamon Mentos, both of which are coated. The Mentos that will explode a bottle of Coke are the uncoated, rough-surfaced version.

Second, the corner store was out of Diet Coke. We tried regular Coke, which was pathetic, and Diet Pepsi, shown in the video. Neither created an impressive fountain.

This weekend, we're going to get it right! Here's our inspiration:



View an interview with these guys here:

Beth Runs! A couple of months ago, I had the crazy idea to train for a marathon. It's been a month and a half now, and I haven't quit. I thought I'd keep track of my progress in a new blog called "Beth Runs!" There's a link to it on the sidebar. Maybe it will be inspirational. Maybe it will be gut-bustingly funny. Who can tell at this point?

New: 2006 Photo Album begun. Click the link on the left. Photos from Hawai'i trip in January. Mom's "Lovely Hula Hands."

or this?

http://www.oco-is-here.com

Went with Nancy & David and their friend Deana to see TransAmerica. Felicity Huffman certainly did an Oscar-worthy job, I got a great walk out of it to downtown Berkeley, good conversation with Deana, a fellow knitter, and can check one more Oscar movie off my list. Plus there was gelatto. Scharffenberger flavor, no less.

Of course, it's now 4am, and I'm still awake, so the day didn't go completely as planned. I decided I'm going to get exactly 8 hours of sleep every night, but I guess not starting until tomorrow night. Why am I up so late? Making the "Viewer Remarks" feature work in my photo album so people can leave comments. Check out Knitting Projects again and leave me a message!

...is something I know intimately. I spent more time working on my knitting page so that it would be more compatible with the general look of this new site. I went back and forth among font sizes and colors and families (yes, fonts have families too) and just oh so many tiny details. So please click the Knitting Projects link to see the updated pages.

Being obsessive is why I am back on Depakote again. (Well, the generic form of valproic acid.) Since yesterday. It's got 3 main uses: convulsions, mania, and migraines. I don't have convulsions or migraines. Before 4am this morning, I was up for 25 hours straight. The thing that finally got me to fall asleep was sitting in front of the TV with a glass of wine watching "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on DVD.

A few nice things today... Michael and I made turkey burgers for dinner and then went to see Goodnight & Good Luck at the California theater. The Oscar race has begun again, and that means a lot of movie-watching for the obsessed. It was good, but slow. Langorous, even. Michael thought Brokeback Mountain was a better film, and I agree.

Okay, so enough about me. Crappy things in the news this past week:

Samuel Alito was sworn in to replace Sandra Day O'Conner.

Coretta Scott King died. She went to the same college as my mom, Antioch. But my mother didn't know her personally.

A whole ferry full of Egyptians died on their way home from Mecca.

Betty Friedan died today.

I'm going to bed now and hope to fall asleep. Goodnight and good luck.

Update: After much searching and trial and error, I finally found a great free photo album program that is going to allow me to easily create photo albums that are hosted here at Coloring the Void, rather than Yahoo or Ofoto or wherever. It's called JAlbum and the "skin" that I am using and modifying is called Aeneid.

So, after working many hours to figure out the code and make my own modifications, I have my first photo album... BethKnits. It replaces the photos that I have up on Yahoo.

From now on, I shouldn't have to work many hours to add photos or create new albums. But it's fun to figure this stuff out. I'm such a geek!

Why did I suddenly get the urge to update my web site? Because the hosting for my domain name, "herweirdest.com," was up for renewal, and I just didn't want it anymore. (Anyone interested in purchasing "herweirdest.com"? I own it through September 2009.)

A new domain name called for a new web site look. So here it is. I'm hoping it will be easier to navigate and update. All the old pages from the previous site are linked on the side bar. I'll be giving notice here as I add/update pages.

Or not. We'll see if creating a new home page motivates me to blog again.