What I've Been Up To

Oh heeeeeyyyy.  How are you?  What have you been up to lately?  Sorry I've been so MIA.  Just not much to report around these parts.  So just to catch you up, here's the Cliff Notes version of what's going on (which is nothing!):

I did, miraculously, actually bake a few things for Thanksgiving this year.  I made pretzel brownies and s'mores bars thanks to Michelle's great ideas.  Like usual, and unsurprising, I f-ed it up though.  I know I know, you're far from shocked.  The in-laws have a fancy oven and unknowingly I used the "convection" oven setting, which apparently cooks things faster.  Buuuutttt I didn't alter the cooking times.  Story of my life.

So the brownies were kind of overcooked.  The s'mores bars were still awesome though, I highly recommend them.  What's not to like?  Butter?  Good.  Chocolate?  Gooood.  Marshmallows?  Goooooood.

Let's see, what else?  We saw Skyfall and Breaking Dawn Part II.  I fell asleep during Skyfall and thought Breaking Dawn was just as bad as all the other books / movies.  But we all know I'm not a reliable recommender. 

 

I went to yoga.  A LOT.  I bought a Groupon for hot yoga and decided it was my new method of fixing my hamstring.  Although I really liked it, and could feel it doing lots of great things for my body, I actually think it was making my hamstring WORSE.  All that direct stretching of it.  So my new method is to avoid putting any stress on my hamstring whatsoever.  I NEVER try to touch my toes.  I'll let you know how it works out.


I ran some races.  You already know all about those though.  Though I haven't "raced" any of them thanks to my bum hamstring, in the last 4 weekends I've done THREE races.  That's ridiculous!  The Mustache Dache, the Seattle Half, and now the Christmas Rush 10k.  Whew. 

I saw this amazing sunrise last week when I was headed to work.  I told you, I don't have that much to report!

We actually completed a home improvement project.  Our weekends used to be filled with these but we haven't done one in a LONG TIME now so I was proud we did anything.  This awkward space was in our bedroom and we finally added some shelves.  I kind of wish we'd done 4 shelves instead of 3 but those are NEVER coming out of there.

I read Reached, Wild, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

Reached was the 3rd book in the Matched trilogy (more young adult dystopia fiction, the story of my year), and NEVER start a trilogy before all three are published.  I could not for the life of me remember what the previous ones were about. 

Wild was VERY interesting and I HIGHLY recommend it.  Very hilarious the true troubles Cheryl gets herself into when she hikes the Pacific Crest Trail without EVER training, wearing hiking boots before, or ever putting on her backpack.  Kind of like Eat Pray Love but better.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was okay.  I look forward to seeing Hermione in the movie. 

     

And last but not least, Cooper is still precious.  I know you won't find that surprising at all.

And how's Runcember going for you?  I've been struggling, I won't lie.  Last week was crazy busy for me with something work-related every night, and I was just so exhausted that convincing myself to walk even a mile was tough.  I hope this week is better.

We have some people who are just straight up DOMINATING though.  Seriously, Robyn did 50+ miles in just the first week!  Don't forget to enter your mileage!

So what's new with you???

Runcember Has Begun!

Today marks the start of RUNCEMBER!  So get our there and run or walk your mile today and every day of December!

I know you can do it!

Sadly, thanks to my hamstring that is never-ever-ever-getting-better it's looking like it might be more like No-Run-Cember for me, but I plan to DOMINATE Walkcember!  GO SIGN UP HERE!

SO HOP TO IT!

Runcember

Sometime after I stuffed my face with stuffing, mashed potatoes, the best pear pecan salad in the world, and corn muffins, the cousins and I had a revelation.

As you may or may not know, JMan ran EVERY-SINGLE-DAY in October and lost about 15 pounds along the way.  It was very impressive and I'm so proud of him.  So we were all talking about that and how impressed we are, and we decided that December would become our RUNCEMBER.

After this decision we may or may not have found ourselves at the nearby track in the PITCH BLACK SCARINESS at 8:00pm Thanksgiving night timing our 400's.  This was AFTER having eaten a huge amount of food people.  It wasn't pretty.  And of the 5 of us, I got last with a 1:39.  I wasn't impressive.  

These were are 5 400 times and our cumulative time.  JMan got 2nd with 1:16.

But I digress.  You don't have to pre- and post-test your 400 times like us.  But you are more than welcome to do that if you'd like!  And you are also ALL invited to participate in what will go down as the legendary RUNCEMBER! 

Rules of Runcember:

1. The first rule of Runcember is you don't talk about Runcember.
2. The second rule of Runcember is YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT RUNCEMBER!
3. You must run or walk at least one mile every single day in December.  No, you cannot run 31 miles all in one day.  Yes you can walk.  No playing basketball / Zumba / Soccer doesn't count.  It's called RUNcember people (or WALKcember), not SOCCERcember.
4. You must log-in to the spreadsheet and enter your mileage.  
5. You must be honest!

And that's it!  There may or may not be prizes, we'll see what I come up with.  It seems rather likely.  There also may or may not be prizes for both completing the challenge (i.e., everyone is eligible) and for "winning" the challenge with the most miles.  

So - how do you play?  Just go to the Google doc and sign up!  Then RUN!  Or walk.  And enter your mileage!  That's it, easy peasy. 
Here's the link to the spreadsheet.

Who's in???