Category: Misc

I'm still recovering from my third half, I think. My brain seems a bit fuzzy and overwhelmed. And I know I must have pushed myself hard on Sunday because my quads are still sore and that never happens to me anymore! Hurt so good.

I'm trying once again to feel my way through the election process and find it as irritating as ever. I am lucky to have a DVR (not that I've watched any TV lately) and an answering machine that picks up on 1.5 rings, so I'm spared a large portion of the political crap. But as I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative, there is no candidate for me. I'm rather disgusted with the whole thing and will probably throw my votes away on unaffiliated/independent candidates in protest … that no one will hear. Oh well.

My sister-in-law is here for a week and getting a taste of motherhood, or at least a taste of what our sitter does every week. Our sitter is out of town and my SIL very kindly agreed to come to CO and stay with her niece and nephew for the week. It isn't much of a vacation for her, but we're hoping to have some fun in the evenings, including the sewing class, Geeks Who Drink and a pumpkin patch. Hopefully she'll enjoy her time with us and the kiddos.

I will have some fun news tomorrow.

Did I mention I ♥ Fall. I soooo do. Especially the food. While I cannot say I have a favorite season, I do have a favorite FOOD season. Fall, no question.

Last night I made up this fall's first batch of shepherd's pie. This is usually an easy recipe, however this go-around one of my kitchen helpers (Ben) stuck an outlet cover that was sitting on the counter into my food processor and I spent the next 30 minutes sifting through the chopped carrots picking out plastic pieces. Luckily, carrots sink and plastic outlet cover pieces float when placed in water – a handy hint should this occur in your household. Foibles aside, our house smelled AWESOME.

I also baked chocolate chip cookies using a new recipe. The ingredient list does not deter much from the venerable tollhouse classic, but the methodology is different and produces an excellent cookie. The methodology, incidentally, is the subject of on one of my all-time-favorite Good Eats episodes, sadly not available on Hulu. At any rate, I must give props to this recipe/methodology. It turned out perfect chocolate chip cookies as advertised. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

In the next couple of weeks I will be hosting two dinner events at my house (not including what I would do as a matter of routine for our family and extended family and friends). We are hosting a pre-half-marathon pasta dinner for my friends who are running the race and their families. I have not entirely decided what to serve, but I think baked ziti will be on the menu and possibly also my aunt's veggie lasagna with bechamel sauce (yum.). Then I get to host Bunco where anything goes, food wise. You might remember (but probably don't) that last year I did breakfast for dinner. I have decided on stuffed baked potatoes, soup (lentil? broccoli cheese?) and salad, followed up by the awesome apple spice cake. The downside of all this hosting is that I really need to deep-clean my house and it is going to be something of a slog to get that done, especially with the construction zone upstairs.

Before fall is over, Matt will undoubtedly be requesting cheesy baked chicken and butternut squash risotto. I think that would be an excellent half-marathon-day dinner, except that it is quite a bit of work, but I may do it anyhow. After my nap.

I was planning to come back and post today, triumphant, with great photos of our fun trip to the farm. Unfortunately, I did not TAKE any great photos. There's a few good ones. Some passable ones. Some that would've been good if the light was right. But no great ones. Actually that's not true, there were some great ones of my friends' kids and I am happy with those and will send them their way, but none of MY kids.

So that was a big ol' bummer. Booo. On the bright side, the tile is IN. It even went in pretty well/easily. It helps that Matt is super OCD about lines and leveling (he's awesome like that) and did a great job on the layout. And I am the queen of frosting … or thinset in this case. I've said it before. We make a really great team.

Now tonight I get to finally play with the kids and then (after they go to bed) play catch-up for shamelessly neglecting our house these past few days. It never ends, I tell ya!

Wow. I have no idea where the last 5 days went. Well yes I do, but the relating of it would be quite boring. Mostly, I've been on my hands and knees in the bathroom. That sounds either really tawdry or possibly really icky. It's actually neither. We ripped up the carpet in the kids' bathroom on Friday evening (boy do we know how to do a Date Night!!) and have been working pretty much every night since to lay down tile in its place. Of course it's not just tile … it's thinset, hardee board, thinset, tile. We still have to grout, caulk, and replace trim. It's a pretty big project. And after this we get to do our master bathroom. Which is like double, maybe triple the size of the kids'. Whee!!

We also had a nice date night, went to a benefit concert and went to the farm with some friends. It really was a nice weekend, but after the tile project, I'm exhausted. Will check back in soon with cute farm pictures (I hope!!). TTFN.

The weekend whizzed by in a blur of family, friends, kids, chores, workouts, cooking, laundry and quite a bit of fun. I took 0 photos. I didn't get enough sleep.

Tabby's big day at the doctors was Friday. It was fairly hellish. Neither of us really wants to talk about it. But she did pick up some pretty good bribes, so hopefully that will blur the edges of her 3.5 year old memory.

Ben logged roughly an hour in the laundry basket/penalty box, in 1 minute increments. He was very fond of hitting and scratching and throwing this weekend. He did not get any bribes, unless you count string cheese, which he probably does.

Matt and I have been playing Civ 5 and watching some new TV. It's been a bit slower which is always nice. He's pretty fun to be with.

And that is the update on our end.

So I've got another half marathon in just a few weeks (Denver's Rock 'n' Roll Half on 10/17!!). I am looking forward to it … we should have a pretty good group there, including my hubby and several friends. I am hoping to match my pace from Disneyland where I had two advantages: 1. altitude (I train at high and that was at low) and 2. elevation change, i.e. hills.

The altitude is out of my control, but the hills are NOT. So I have been doing hill work all week. And saying that I've been doing it all week is something new for me. There was a time not too long ago when I'd start each and every day with a workout.

But that has NOT been the case for quite a while. Sometimes I'd get one or two morning workouts in in one week, but more often than not, I'd hit the snooze button too long and just blow the whole thing off. Then I'd run out of time in the evening and skip it again. Not that I didn't train … I did! But I had this stupid mentality that unless I was doing at least 5 miles, there was no point, which is ridiculous.

So I have turned over a new leaf. My new motto is that anything is better than nothing. I've gotten up in the morning three days in a row now and worked out. I love being done with it when I get home from work. I want to do a bit more as time goes on, but for now, as I'm getting back into the swing of things, it is enough. And I have learned (once again) that getting up is never as bad as I think it's going to be AND I'm always glad I did it.