Three Things Thursday

1.   I had a funny dream Tuesday night.  Well, the dream itself wasn’t funny.  It was downright scary.  I dreamed I was being held at knifepoint.  The funny part came when I woke up to find the reason for the dream.  My cat was asleep on my pillow beside my head, and one of her claws was digging into my throat.

2.   I don’t know what I’m more excited about watching on TV tonight:  Game 6 of the World Series or the new Beavis and Butthead episode.

3   My dryer is making funny noises.  I hope this means it’s dying.  I’ve been wanting a new washer and dryer for AGES but have refused to spend the money as long as the ones I’ve got are still working.  Why is that always how it works?  I feel pretty certain that If I weren’t wishing death on it, it would have gone out years ago.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Because sometimes a little dairy laced with hydrogenated oil and cancer-causing carrageenan is totally worth it.

Track Envy

I follow quite a few running blogs.  I have for quite some time.  During that time, I have seen several photos of the tracks that you guys run on, and I can’t help but be jealous.  Most of your photos look like this:

So today while I was at my local high school’s track, I thought I’d snap a few pictures just to show you guys how good you have it!

Track?  Or obstacle course?

Track etiquette says runners have the inside lanes.  Yeah… about that…

And speaking of lanes, I’m PRETTY SURE there are supposed to be lines somewhere out there…

Caution:  Uneven lanes

Watch your step

And again

Aaaaaand again

Pretty sad, huh?

The Taste of Compassion

Last night my sister came up to hang out, and we spent the vast majority of the evening in the kitchen.  Game 3 of the World Series was gonna be on, and that made for the perfect excuse to try a couple of vegan finger food recipes that I’ve been wanting to try. Kim isn’t vegetarian or vegan, but unlike my husband, she isn’t scared of a vegetable, so she earned the distinct privilege of being my guinea pig last night.

First up, we made some hummus and guacamole.  Those were nothing new, but we just needed something to munch on while we made everything else.  🙂

By the time we left of the kitchen, we (and by we, I mean I) had made the most awesome quesadillas (again, nothing new but I just wanted some veggie quesadillas!) …

A work in progress–sauteeing the peppers, onion, and spinach

my new favorite finger food–potato angels!  They’re a vegan alternative to deviled eggs…

and vegan hot wings

I was a little skeptical about these because I friggin’ looooooooooooooove me some chicken wings.  I just didn’t know how well a vegan version would fly with me.  But they were not half bad at all!  I’ll use a bolder sauce next time, but other than that they were really pretty good.  (confession:  These did end up losing their veganity because I dipped them in blue cheese dip.  Some things are still sacred, ya know.)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been looking for vegan versions of various things that I used to enjoy as a carnivore.  At first I was disappointed because when I would find a recipe, it almost always would say somewhere in it, “This tastes just like the real thing!”  Well, you know what?  It never does. There are things that might taste similar, but it never tastes “just like!” what it is being made to mimic.  And I’ve come to accept that it’s perfectly okay.  

Compassion has its own flavor, and it DOESN’T taste like meat.

Aim High…Fly Fight Win

I’m a very proud aunt.  My niece is graduating from basic training today.

With Honors.

Three Things Thursday

1.   I am HATING myself for not running RnR St. Louis this weekend.  I am a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan, and in case you missed it, they are in the World Series.  Even though they will be playing in Texas this weekend, I can guarantee that city will still be rocking.  It would have been a heck of a good time.

2.   Everybody needs earrings for Halloween, and my friend Shelly makes some awesome ones.  You should totally check out her etsy site.  She makes way more than Halloween stuff (Anything you could possibly want, really.  Even custom stuff.), but I’m loving these right now.  I bought a pair of each!  (And a pair of the spidery ones for my sister!)

“Canaima” – For the obviously Halloweeny look

“Jack” – For the more subtle fall look

3.   I started Christmas shopping this week.  I bought two things, and they are for people I usually have NO idea how to shop for.  I always say I’m gonna get an earlier start on the shopping, but I think this year is the first year I’ve actually done it.  I’m very happy to have two of my most difficult ones crossed off my list already!

The Winds of Change…

… came blowing in hard on Tuesday.  They blew in a cold front taking the temps from mid-70s on Monday to low 50s less than 24 hours later.  And along with that cold front came a renewed sense of enthusiasm.  For the first time in I CAN’T REMEMBER how long, I anticipated the run, I looked forward to the run, I enjoyed the run, I savored the run.

There really wasn’t anything special about it.  It was an ordinary four miles, but it was the best four miles that I’ve run in a long time, and it gave me more than just a little bit of a confidence boost.  Maybe I haven’t lost as much fitness as I thought I had over the summer.  Maybe I’m not starting from scratch.  Maybe I was wrong to write myself off.

The wind must have known I needed it to blow today.

Catch up – Bullet style!

• I am still alive.
• Work still sucks, but at least I still have a job.  I finally got my sub hired and trained and took Friday off.  It was my first day off in waaaaaaaaaaay too long.
• For two months I have been neglecting the old bloggaroo, neither posting nor reading/commenting.  It was just too depressing.  I haven’t been in the best mental state lately, and it was depressing for me to read about all of your successes (Hey, I never claimed to be a good sport), and depressing for me to write about all of my failures.  So I did neither.
• I did not get to take the beach vacation that I was supposed to take in early September.
• I did not run the half-marathon in Clarksville I was supposed to have run Saturday.
• I will not be running the half-marathon in Clarksville I was supposed to be running next Saturday.
• I will not be running the half-marathon in St. Louis I was supposed to be running on 10/23.
• I only have myself to blame for the previous three bullets.
• I ran 16 miles in September.  It was my lowest low point (emotionally and mileage-wise), but my spirits and my mileage are now both on the rise.
• My speed and stamina have taken a major hit.  (DUH!  That tends to happen when you don’t run.)
• I’ve got four weeks to get 10K ready.
• I’ve got eight weeks to get half-marathon ready.
• I’ve thrown my hopes for a PR at either distance out the window.
• My focus for now is on the shorter distance. My HM running partner for St. Jude has run into her own training barriers, so we plan to “run” for fun only. I’ve got all winter long to get PR-ready for the HM distance in the spring.
• I found a home for my foster kitten that I posted about (which I took deleted because it was just too depressing), and she is doing wonderfully with her new forever family.
• I am SUPER excited about a trip that I have coming up!  I’m flying to VA to visit my awesome friend Michele next month.  *Insert squeals and clapping here*
• While I’m there, we will be trekking down to Richmond so that she can slaughter the Richmond half-marathon while her son and I act as her official race crew.  *Insert more squeals and clapping here*
• I have stuck with the whole vegetarian thing (with some very vegan tendencies) since I went veg on 7/9 and haven’t looked back.  I freakin’ love it.

Aaaaaand, I guess that’s pretty much it.  And now if you’ll excuse me, I have some catching up to do on all of your blogs too!