The week is long.

And I am tired.

For the first three days of last week, I started my morning before 7 and took a walk around the neighborhood, followed by a little jump roping (jumping rope? Rope-jumping? The correctness of any usage is unclear). This made me VERY tired all day, because apparently I need that extra half hour in the mornings to get my shit together. Or maybe I just always wake up tired.

Either way, I totally punked out on Thursday and Friday with regard to my "fitness" plan, but tried again today. In the rain. My pants are wet and it's not my fault. Blame it on the rain, YEAH YEAH.

A number of intriguing links have popped up while I've been at work, and it was not, at the time, appropriate to get on Blogger and share them with you. Some people already know I keep a blog and are aware of the domain, and...yeah. Not that they'd come over to me all, "Why weren't you putting red ink all over something instead of posting to your childish BLOG, little girl?" if they even read it, but you know. It IS in the employee handbook.

Anyway, yeah, intriguing links. I'll pull 'em up in a minute.

Margot came over Wednesday night, by the way. We ate tilapia, asparagus, salad, and apple pie. I put probably 40-some damn miles on my car transporting her to and from Fremont, but we had a good time.

And now it's raining. I so wanted to go hiking this weekend. A wussy day hike, but a hike all the same. Maybe the weather is nice when you drive inland. I'm picking up my new backpack and water bottle from REI today. The pack is red and the bottle is blue.

Speaking of blue, I bought a Le Creuset dutch oven in blue this week from Amazon because it was on sale: $154 instead of $250, plus $25 off with a code, plus free shipping and no sales tax, plus a free (insanely backordered) 1 1/4-qt. saucepan. Yes, that is a lot of money to spend on a pot, but it is supposed to be a superamazing (although not magic) pot that will last forever. (The blue is more subdued than it appears in the picture, though.)

Interesting Link #1 is about a new paradigm, I guess, for thinking about diet. I thought it was pretty interesting, and it made me want to go home and eat a pile of broccoli. Which, actually, I did.

Interesting Link #2 comes from the PoliTech mailing list and talks about a self-identified Canadian blogger who was refused entrance to the U.S. and harassed by the border guard for...we don't know why. But it's fucked up.

Interesting Link #3 comes from a blog I've been enjoying very much, but this particular post discusses an apparent link between European people who were resistant to the Plague and a genetic mutation in their descendants that makes them resistant or immune to HIV.

And finally, earlier this week, I felt like writing up a top 5 list of my favorite female rock performers. There were going to be comments, but work came in and I lost interest. However, I will share with you the list. Every time I put it together, I think of someone I forgot, though. What's yours?

5. Beth Ditto of the Gossip
(ETA: Janet Weiss of Quasi and Sleater-Kinney previously lived here, but I thought about it, and while Janet's contribution to Quasi, which I love more than I like S-K, is excellent, it's Beth Ditto's performances that kill me. And the whole band, which is not male-fronted. I don't really like Janet's songs on the Quasi records.)
4. Aimee Mann
3. Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth
2. PJ Harvey
1. Bjork

Fuck Sarah Jessica Parker and her enjoyment of being a girl. Fuck it in the eye.