Thursday, January 31, 2013

thoughtsday :: 1.31.13

Holy WHAT. How did it become the last day of January already? I still feel like the holidays are right behind the corner. We have Christmas candy lying around (which sure as heck wouldn't normally be the case had I been eating dairy products the past month) and sugar cookie candles that need to be burned. I don't think those two things can wait to be used until next holiday season. Someone help.

Onto the thoughts:

1. This vegan pasta/everything sauce is soooo good. I used cherry peppers instead of jalapenos, and the flavor was still spot on. It was delightfully creamy, without being too rich. I had a little left over that I blended with some water, which became my salad dressing for my kale salad the next day.




2. New hairdryers that don't fry your hair. The past month I've noticed little fried pieces of my hair falling off my head whenever I blow dry, and the culprit is the 8 year old hair dryer. Oh, that I inherited from my husband when I moved in with him (yeah, no questions there, right?). I got this Conair dryer from Target and am in LOVE. Mostly because my head gets to be warm again from the not-so-strange loss of hair.

3. Running clothes that were made for the winter rain. I bought the following green jacket at the REI garage sale circa 2006 and have recently fallen back in love with its waterproof protection measures. It's nothing special, really, but it does the trick when you're trying not to freeze when running. Around a track. In the dark. In the winter. AKA, my Tuesday night. Fun!


I want to know! What are your favorite articles of clothing to wear in the rain/cold? Have you discovered a new food you can't get enough of lately? aaaaand, what is your morning hair routine?

Monday, January 28, 2013

Monday marathoning :: 1.28.13

Well here we go - the start of North Olympic Discovery Marathon training! It's hard to believe it's here already, and that June 2nd still seems like an eternity away. Here's what this week ought to look like:


The timing really couldn't be better, what with this beautiful forecast:
I know I should not be complaining, given that so many of you are currently running in the snow. !!! You have my utmost respect. I can hardly think about that thought without my hands starting to do the whole numb/ache thing.

Well, I'm off to have a glass of vino to rid my mind of all the events that could have gone a lot better today. Monday...you weren't so awesome. Tuesday is going to be so much cooler....right, Tuesday?

Have a great night!

weekend happenings :: 1.28.13

Happy Sunday! I hope you have had a faaabulous weekend. Here are some snaps from around here the past couple days. 

Saturday morning pancakes:

Those babies are vegan, gluten-free and contain chocolate chips, which basically marked the beginning of lazy Saturday. I kid you not, it was all I could do to not lay in bed the rest of the day. I use this pancake recipe from my previous blog, but ended up having to add in more water yesterday for some unknown reason.

A view from my Saturday afternoon run:
AKA, evidence that the pancakes eventually wore off and I got my booty out on the streets (in a good way). Despite beginning chilly and windy, there wasn't a drop of rain and the run was really pleasant.

Post-run lunch:
AKA, girl eats rabbit food. And loves it. Especially when it's covered in olive oil and spices, then stuffed into the oven for 30 minutes. I put this mess on a salad with BBQ sauce, nutritional yeast and sunflower seeds, and when my bowl was empty, I only wanted more.

Saturday night date:
This movie was incredible, and made me feel even more blessed to live in the country I do. I'm really bad at following the news, and missed out on a lot of events that were portrayed in the movie. I kept asking Scott "did that really happen?" until he finally said "this movie is a true story. Everything happened." Blew my mind. I researched a bit when I got home, just to catch up a little bit more. I recommend it.

Sunday night pizza date and concert with mi hermana:




We tried out Pizza Pi, a vegan pizza place in the University District of Seattle, and damn. Blew me away. We each got a side Caesar salad (100% vegan!) and split a medium pizza with half Southwestern and half Garlic Sauce Favorite. I can't even...it was just...gah, forget words.

After our meal, it was incredible to think we still had not seen the main show - The Walkmen with Father John Misty (yes, that's April from Parks and Rec.). They were both phenomenal. The Walkmen are a group of standup guys that wear suits and put on such a great show. Father John Misty is the old drummer for Fleet Foxes and is so dang hilarious. His dance moves are out of control.

What was the highlight of your weekend? This includes both meals and activities!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Thoughtsday :: 1.24.13

1. Today is a day of days.I ran my first track workout! In the rain and the wind and the cold! And I loved it. You're probably thinking "...um, what? Her first track workout? How has she survived?" And the answer is I have not a clue, because my butt was kicked and my muscles melted and my breath shortened in a very scary way, which are all things that I know will make me a better, more efficient, runner. My adrenaline was pumping hard, along with my new jams, which made me amped up all the more.

The motivation for me to try this new-to-me activity was that I realized I begin marathon training this Monday with the Hanson Brothers method. They  have me doing speed workouts every Tuesday, so I figured I may as well get down to business and see what all the fuss is about so I have somewhat of an idea what I'm doing next week.

I did four Yasso 800's, with a mile warm-up and a mile cool down for a grand total of 5 miles. Despite the crappy weather and that I was running faster than I have in awhile, it made me feel incredibly good. Holler at endorphins.

2. The Coachella line-up has officially arrived! For the past 5 months, Coachella blogs and discussion boards have consumed Scott's life, and tonight his baby finally arrived. We are both pretty stoked, even if I did have to research who The Stone Roses are. (It's typically a good sign of a bad lineup if you need to Google a headliner, but in this instance that thankfully wasn't the case.) This will be our third time going, and I am so ready for the desert.



3.  Speaking of good, quality music, Scott and his fellow teachers surprised their students last night by resurrecting the Backstreet Boys with an all new performance of a decade (plus) old song. He and his four band mates rocked the stage, making it a highlight not soon to be forgotten.


Track workouts - love or hate? 

Have you been to a great concert lately or are any on the horizon?

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

bringing the beat(z)

*I decided I'm going to do a weekly "running recap" of sorts once a week (it's looking like that will be Mondays), instead of the little updates whenever I blog. This will make the updates more consistent and cohesive as opposed to "oh hey, I haven't updated in 3 days so here are my runs that heaven forbid I don't inform you of." You get the idea. 


Today I'm discussing a very important topic - music! More importantly, running/workout music that can pump a girl up and make her want to sweat all over the place. Which is totally me, by the way. The sweat never ceases.

I mentioned the other day how my iPeezy wasn't currently holding nearly as many bombastic tunes as it normally (and necessarily) is. Thankfully, that didn't last long and it is now beefed up, thanks to suggestions from friends and ideas from Spotify. Here are my new favorite additions:

1. Tanlines: Not The Same
2. Tame Impala: Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind?
3. Solange: Losing You
4. Little Dragon: Crystalfilm
5. Florence + Calvin Harris: Sweet Nothing
6. Beyonce: Countdown (I still love her, even if she does lip-synch.)
7. Magic Wands: Black Magic
8. Bombay Bicycle Club: How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?
9. J.T. + Timbaland: Carry Out
10. Calbin Haris: Sweater Weather
11. Yeasayer: Fingers Never Bleed
12. MSTRCRFT: Heartbreaker
13. Kid Cudi: Pursuit of Happiness (both the Project X remix and the original)
14. Das Racist: Girl (your first thought the second the beat hits will probably be IT'S THE KMART LAYAWAY COMMERCIAL!!!)
15. Frank Ocean: Lost
16. Cat Power: Cherokee

A good friend recently got me into Spotify, and I have to admit I'm loving it. I'm definitely in favor of searching for any artist or song, and having it pop up right there without a whole lot of sifting through different results. I'm not springing the whole $10 a month for premium, which will allow you to use it on your mobile device, but I do like it for when I'm doing computer or house work. You can make your own playlists, and even share them with your other friends that are on Spotify.

Before Spotify came along I was using the "playlist" feature on YouTube, which was the same idea - you just create playlists with all your favorite tunes/videos. I still use this for my workout videos, but like Spotify more for the straight music because the interface was created for such things.

Happy Hump Day!

I have to know - are our music tastes similar? Do the above songs make you swoon or make you want to throw up?

Monday, January 21, 2013

Weekend Happenings :: 1.21.13

A run: 8 freakishly awesome miles outside. What makes this so weird is that it was 33 degrees outside, and yet I felt great the whole time. I'm really hoping this is the beginning of me finally putting my big girl running leggings on and dealing with the cold like any mature adult. Yeah, we'll see how long that explanation holds.



Here are some snapshots from the weekend. I was confused with when I should do this, what with today being technically still part of the weekend due to the holiday. Then, I fell asleep at the late hour of 8:00 last night after a long weekend of celebrating marriages and birthdays, so writing a blog post was definitely not in the cards.


A Friday night wedding at the Lake Union Cafe:



We got a little overzealous with the photo booth. It was their fault for having such fun props.

My groom. He still doesn't know how to act when there's a camera around.

Ahh. A rarity.

3 wines and a water.
 This wedding was gorgeous. There is no other descriptor that accurately represents the whole event. The venue, the food, and above all, the bride and groom and their ceremony - all of it gorgeous. From what I gather, the venue is only available for private events, which they have done to an art. The decorations look like they're from the 1930's, in the most classy way. There's a dance floor, restuarant-style seating with both tables and booths, a beautiful bar, and a really nice sitting room. I'm sure there's a lot more, but that's all I saw, which is impressive enough that I paid attention to all that anyway what with the photo booth being present. Why are those so fun?!

a Saturday night "Mannliest Man" birthday party:



This was a blast of a party. The hostess has been one of my nearest and dearest since forever ago, and knows how to throw a good gathering. Not only did she have time to make some of the most delicious (smelling) food (it wasn't vegan, so I restrained, but DANG it looked good) and decorate by appropriately taping various mustaches to the wall, but she also managed to find the time to grow a sweet 'stache.


What were you up to this weekend? Does anyone have today off for honoring Dr. King?

Friday, January 18, 2013

Thoughtsday (a day late)

Runs for the week: Have been slim. There were a lot of "life things" to take care of this week, so I pretty much squeezed in runs whenever I could, no matter the distance. My longest was only 4 miles (oh, heeey), but I would really like to try and get 10 miles in tomorrow morning.




One great revelation I had this week was that I can run 3 miles in the morning and still make it to work on time! I used to think I could only run when I was able to get into the office later, but I was wrong. So that's neat, except I still need to work on not being a baby when it's A. cold, B. foggy, or C. dark outside. My positive running mentality just got quite the hit.

Onto the thoughts!

1. CHOCOLATE. It's all I can think about. What are some good vegan chocolate chips/bars/fountains I can invest in? These need to happen - delicious and no bake? I'm there.

I have been fulfilling my sugar cravings via the heavenly bulk bin at WinCo. This is the haul I got the other day before a 2-hour work meeting. I accidently ate all the licorice, and was sick the rest of the night. The whole incident made me feel like a child.



2. COMPOSTING! I made my own bin this week and am sooo excited to feed my garden some nutritious food this summer. This list is pretty fun to read, although I shuttered a little when I got to the end about urine. I like my soil UNsoiled, thanks.



3. I need to update my running playlist! It's been a good 6 months, and I've found myself changing songs all too frequently lately. I just discovered Lord Huron, who sound a lot like Fleet Foxes, and am in love. They make for surprisingly good running music...I just imagine running through fields with deer. Typically though, my workout playlists are all about Britney, Girl Talk, Arcade Fire, etc. Bring on the beat!

What are some good songs/artists you've been into recently? I need some help!

Enjoy your Friday!