Surprise!

Surprise pre-race post. I told you all you wouldn’t hear from me again until after the race on Sunday, but clearly I have something to share with you. My blog got a much needed makeover!

I love love love love love it. My brother is a software development engineer at Microsoft and is very talented in the language of the computers. I asked him in around February to help me redesign my blog and instead, he redesigned his girlfriend’s. A month later I had a birthday and what came in the mail from Matt and Mallory but a package of carob almond butter cups and a gift certificate to the ever popular Blog Fairy. While my brother is technical, he is not a designer. She is. But then 6 months went by. Partly because I was lazy, partly because I was busy and partly because I had no idea how I wanted the blog to look. Finally, I wrote to the Blog Fairy. After some very pleasant emails and working together on the header, colors and theme, what you see is the absolutely amazing work she did! I am so happy and impressed with the Blog Fairy’s talent. She truly is a Blog Fairy!

I chose my old theme because I liked the freedom it allowed me to stretch my text as long as I wanted. There were no width limits (This means that you might find large photos here that surprass the given width. I am trying to fix those). But it was lacking in so many ways, the biggest being it did not allow for widgets. I wanted widgets! I also thought the colors were cool, and had originally planned to keep them in the redesign, but they didn’t work as well with my request for “shiny things” to go in the header. Even though the blog’s name started as an inside joke from a TV show my brother and I love, Red Dwarf, since I decided to keep it I figured I might as well make it relevant. Hence, the shiny things (fork, knife, weights, and my favorite, the eksusis ball) as well as the font, which was a fun find. And I love the pink and how it looks with the slate.

Needless to say, I am a happy girl! I had lot of fun playing with widgets and I still have plans to fix up that section. I am also in the process of adding content to my new pages and hope to get that done over the next week or two. I love how easy everything is to find in this theme and I feel like a kid who just got a new toy for Hanukkah!

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Tell me what you think about my new look and feel — and if you have any suggestions for fun widgets, let me know!

So tomorrow is my 5K. A couple of you suggested Target for tops, but I live in Manhattan and we don’t have the luxury of such a place. No time to travel to the outer boroughs before the race either, but luckily I don’t need to! So after two more failed running store visits, I went back to Lululemon for a quick walk through. My eye landed on these shirts I saw the last time, but I hadn’t seen any in my size and I was too lazy to ask. It was the Cool Racerback, and came in great colors, including my favorite, a medium green. I spotted one in my size in white (well, the smallest size, although that size was too large in the other styles I tried on the last time) and took it to the dressing room. And it looked great! I wish I could have gotten it in more colors, but they told me it sells out right away in my size and I am lucky to even have found it at all. I took the white home and was thrilled to have a shirt for the race. And determined to buy this top in every color, it is so comfortable! A little big in the middle but good on top so it is fine with me. I love it! And even though my TaTa Tamer (AKA chest armour), shows like crazy outside it now, they are coming out with the TaTa Tamer II that will be in stores soon (but not yet) that has adjustable straps you can criss cross, and wear it nicely behind a racer back. I am going to return my newest unworn TaTa Tamer and wait for the new version to come out!

Edited to add: I actually had a TaTa Tamer II but there was a design flaw, and the straps are too short when criss-crossed. I returned it and am waiting for the improved version to come out!

So you’d think all is said and done with the shirt for the race, right? Wrong! I was walking down to Hallmark in the mall where I work when I passed Urban Athletics, where I went earlier in the week and nothing fit. I was drawn in my a 50% off sale sign and went straight to the sale racks (remember, I got my Craft running shorts half off on these racks!) and grabbed a Saucony running top in electric blue. I fully expected it to be giant, but to my surprise . . . it basically fit! A tiny bit big, but nothing noticable or major. And the material is so soft and light and comfortable. I loved it! And for 50% off it was $14. I bought it.

What I don’t understand is — why wasn’t it in the store when I tried everything on a few days earlier? And now it is on sale? Where did it come from!

I decided I will most likely wear that one for the race. With my new moisture wicking white Under Armour visor and race bib, it makes me look like such a real runner! I’ll be sure to take a picture tomorrow.

I’m going to try for shorter posts going forward. The way I have two topics in here, I will be splitting them up into two entries when I can since I won’t be able to write every day. And I have a giveaway coming up! And of course, a race recap. I am so nervous! I also may have signed up for something in October that I might not be ready for, more on that coming soon.

Thanks friends!