Opted Out

So I decided not to go to the Christmas party. Part of me wanted to, but the bigger part of me wanted to just stay home and veg. I used to be out and on the go everyday of the week, but lately, and in the winter in particular, I've just become blah during the week, and really only go out on the weekend because I feel like I really have to just to keep from totally becoming a recluse...I did a run during lunch yesterday, and I know I went too late and/or should've eaten before I went because it was really lagging. I did 5 miles, although Garmin was messing up a bit at the end on distance, but I finished in 44:50, not a stellar performance (which has me questioning some of my recent paces without Garmin, but my estimates for distance seem to be on, so who knows) but OK, didn't feel great after it though...that's been the case a lot lately. The conditions around the island (where I chose to run so I could have the option of quitting whenever I needed to) were a bit treacherous. The weather was upper 30s/low 40s, but one side hadn't seen the sun and we had rain on Tuesday so the path had been wet, and it was icy, first lap I ran on the path, second I went next to the path on that side as it wasn't worth risking a fall!! I didn't get any strength training in though, I planned to, but went down there after work and just realized I didn't want to change again and I just didn't feel like it, so I went home. I did get out of bed early this morning though and did my strength yoga (20 minutes) and have finally fully figured out that it is my hamstring more than the IT Band that is tight and causing problems on the left side. I need to work that out. I need to be better at stretching (and doing my yoga). Hopefully I can get that worked out before I make any decisions about next year.

Anyway, in other news...I managed to FINALLY get my computer at home working. After fighting with it, bitching about it and trying to figure out what to do with a lot of help from a friend (even hauling it to her place to try to get it into recovery counsel and wipe everything and redo it) I went to a basic idea and fixed it...OK, what happened is some type of virus got into it. I have had a lapsed virus program for a while, but don't use it much anyway, so figured I was safe...wrong. It was causing lots of issues. So I purchased McAffee with firewall and everything, couldn't install it cause the virus was stopping it. OK...so last night after all these other thoughts and attempts, I hunted down my owner's manual for the computer to find a way to reinstall Windows and hopefully wipe the virus...well, it suggested before doing that to do a system restore...duh...I've done that before and it worked. So I went back to the last of those I could do, it was from September, and lo and behold it worked. I was able to install McAffee, run it, put up the firewall (well that's having issues, but at least it's helping to look and make sure there are no viruses). I'm also going to download Netscape and start using that over Microsoft Explorer because it's much safer from what I hear...might even go with Firefox which is another good one I've heard. But happy day, now I can use my computer at home and get my Christmas cards ready, get a present ready I was going to send a friend and maybe do a little hunting and see what might make me some more money...and maybe get some new experience. I have one position in mind I'd really like to check into a bit more, and the commute would be no worse than it is now...wish me luck!!