Beethoven In Trance - Episode 38

It's still winter, and still boring...

A pulled hamstring has put me out for a month now. Did a recovery running two days ago when weather was nice. Felt pretty good that day, and then it hit me the next afternoon. Today I am feeling all right, but clearly understand all the leg muscle are under stress. Not more running for at least two days. Will take a walk in the office though.

Just received PE, and this time it was better that last year. But salary is only bumped 2.81%. 2.81%? Where the heck is that number from? It was not motivative at all. The manager told me that was not the whole picture, I was at a high compensation ratio, so that I will need to be promoted in order to receive a higher raise. So what stopped you promoting me? Oh, it's done in July every year. Oh, I see. I got back to my seat and later receive an email announcing two colleagues got promoted. Hum....

Stock market is in roller coast mode right now. Retirement accounts all dropped around 9 - 10%, which mimics the total market. We are 'front loading' our 401K accounts this year - meaning higher contribution % to the accounts at the beginning of the year. We are 'buying low' at the current market condition, and hopefully, when the market gets back on track, we can 'sell high'.

It's getting difficult to buy running shoes on cheap these days. The more run I do, the pickier I am about the running shoes. Ascis so far is the best fit for me. But my GT2110 is half gone now, and I started to looking online for replacement. There were some deep discount on amazon.com last year end. I bought some shoes with free shipping and free return shipping to try on. I kept one Columbia to replace my dying Ascis Eagle Trail, which didn't turn out to be the best idea as it was a little to big for my feet. I have to put in another cushion to wear it. But lesson learned, I returned all the other shops even they were dirt cheap because I wasn't completely happy with their feel on my feet.

Instead, I bought two pairs from SportsAuthority. One is Mizuno Wave Alchmey 6 for me, and one is Saucony Grid Sinister for my wife. It's a buy one and get the second one half off, plus 20% off clearance item deal. Each costs about $38, which is a pretty good deal considering both shoes are not cheap originally. Later on, I found a pair of NB trail running shoes and Ascis Gel Kayano 8 on sale. One is $39, and the other is $59. I took both because they were more than 50% off. I have received none of them yet, but look forward to testing them on the road.

With all the purchase, it wrote off $140 in my shoe budget (which I don't have). The original budget of the year was $50, which come to think of it, was too low. Considering our current running milage over the year. I think I will have to adjust it to $100. For this year, $50 of the $140 will go to my shoe budget, and $90 will go to my birthday gift account. And I still have $10 left from the birthday gift account to spend. I think I might pick up a chinese cleaver from China town, but I haven't decided yet.

Other than shoe shopping, I also did some clothe shopping. It started as our regular cookware shopping and I didn't find any good deals on pots and pans. I then started to look at clothe in hope to find some running shirts. I didn't find any running shirts, but I did find some sports jacket. I found one Columbia 'softshell' windstopper, and a Lafuma (an european brand) 'Techwarm' fleece jacket. They seemed to fit my body frame, and @ reasonable price, $20 in clearance section. I took both. Then I found another long sleeve 'Tech shirt', well, more like a long sleeve golf techshirt, I took it @ $10 too.

Now that just got my clothe shopping nerve all iched up, we will go shopping for clothe again after Valentine's day.

It was 12F outside this morning, sun shine though. Our home is running @ 48F. To most of the Americans, it is a 'freezing' temperature, but we seem to survive just fine.