Wedding Anniversary Festivities

Today, Ben and I are celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary. We started the day by eating lunch at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro. Then we browsed the samples at A Southern Season. We ate dinner at Spice Street, and then went for coffee and dessert at Caribou. Next week, we'll be going on vacation to Seattle to celebrate both our wedding anniversary and our graduations from UNC.

Laziness

Well it's summer, at least if you're mind runs on the academic calendar. Graduation was 2 weeks ago, my master's thesis is completed done and submitted, so I am very much on summer vacation. I am trying to make the most of it by being really lazy. Now, I must say that this is not hard for me to do at all, because I am really really good a finding trivial things to do to pass time, like playing Tetris on my computer, surfing the NBC Olympics website (Go Team USA!), sleeping late, and the like. But I have done a few productive things, like getting the oil changed in the car, grocery shopping, and cleaning the house once. And I'm still going running 5 days a week and doing resistance training; gotta keep in shape for the Blue Ridge Relay in September. The laziness will be slightly interrupted in June because I'm teaching a PE class during second summer session, and I will probably also shave down my master's thesis into something that could be submitted for publication.

In the meantime, I don't feel terribly bad about my laziness because my advisor, Dr. B., told me to make sure I get lots of rest this summer because all the craziness will start again in the fall with the PhD program.

Graduation Pictures

This past Sunday was UNC graduation. Ben and I aren't officially getting our diplomas until August, but we still walked in our departmental ceremonies. Ben is receiving his PhD in physics and I am receiving my MA in Exercise and Sport Science (Exercise Physiology). Below are some pics from the event.

Me and my parents

Me and Dr. Bob McMurray. He is the specialization coordinator for the Exercise Physiology group in our department.

Me and my advisor, Dr. Claudio Battaglini. He was my master's thesis advisor, and he will be my PhD dissertation advisor. Dr. B. also won a departmental award for excellence in undergraduate teaching, which he has already won several times.

Me and Ben, all dressed up in our regalia.

Running Free

Last Saturday I tried something new: running without wearing my stopwatch. I had heard of people doing this for a change of pace (heehee, no pun intended) as a way to just enjoy a run, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was actually quite nice to just go out and run, and not be bound to the pace readout on my watch. To gauge my effort, I imagined a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) scale and tried to keep the effort in the "somewhat hard" range (it was a easy run day, so I wasn't really concerned about pushing it too hard). I did the same thing yesterday, so I think that I may try running like this once a week.