Favorite Things Right Now

Rice Cooker

This is mine, except white.

Rice is one of my favorite staples to always have ready to go.  I can add anything to it in the rice cooker and it cooks it up to perfection every time!

Water

Water

I haven't had any soda in a few weeks now.  It wasn't a  conscious choice, really.  I just never bought anymore.  I figured I drank enough coffee anyways.  Now, I'm going to be staying away from coffee as well.  Water is my go to beverage of choice.  If I get too bored with it, I like to add one of those lemonade Crystal Light flavorings...except I use the Market Pantry brand from Target because it's cheaper and just as delicious.

Knitting

Poor Kitty

I know, I'm weird.  I have always crocheted and loved how fast I could finish something.  After starting my knitting project, I have learned to be patient with making things.  It's still very hard to take weeks to finish a project, but it is worth it in the end.

Gym Membership

So Cute!

I had really started to slack on my running because of the weather and overall general laziness.  Now there is no excuse to miss a workout.  I really like the cardio cinema.  I can watch a movie and workout at the same time.  How awesome is that?  I can also get in my speed work on the treadmill and get to an occasional yoga class.

On another note...

Today, I tried out a new recipe.  I was browsing through my millions of Pinterest recipes that I've never used and came across a quick and easy one called Mexican Lentils and Rice.  I read the blog Runs for Cookies and she has a separate blog for her recipes that I like to check out all of the time.  There are a ton of great ones to try!

I just threw everything in a rice cooker and it came out perfectly delicious!

I ate it on a tortilla, but I actually prefer it plain.

The rest of my day was spent cleaning the house.  It was in dire need of it!

Where do you get your recipes from?  

Ice, Ice, Baby

Today when I was getting ready for my run, Kevin told me to put on my Yaktrax.  He found some for me at Goodwill a couple of years ago.  I only wore them twice.  They sort of annoyed me, but it wasn't icy like this when I wore them.

Wool socks, tights, skirt, thermal shirt and jacket ended up being way to warm.

I thought it would be fine.  The sun was out, it was up to about 25 degrees, and there wasn't much wind.  I figured most of the ice would be melted by now.  Wrong-O!

Looks like water, but was solid ice with water on top.  First time I almost fell!

It was actually a gorgeous day out!

I almost fell on my ass about 5 times.  I followed the usual trail I do for my 3 mile runs.  I figured it would be easier to run on a path instead of sidewalks where no one seemed to have shoveled.

Well, the whole, entire path was covered in a solid layer of ice.  I had to shuffle along and hope I had a strong core to balance me.  Going over the bridges was the scariest part.  There are 4 of them I run over.  I was holding on the railing of the second bridge taking baby steps and still almost fell down!  And all the sun was doing was making the ice more slippery by forming a layer of water on top.

Slow run, but I didn't take any walk breaks!

I wasn't too sore afterwards.  My inner thighs and upper calves were a little sore, but that went away after stretching.  Tomorrow is a speed workout and I think I may have to skip it.  It's way too icy out to go bursting off as fast as I can.

My knitting is coming along as well.  I've been working on the trinity stitch.  It took me two days to finish it!

I'm not sure what stitch I am going to do next!  Only nine more squares to go!

Do you like to run inside or out?

Knitting Machine!

Today I decided to really buckle down with my eating.  Ever since I made my New Year goals I really haven't made any effort to make them happen...story of my life.

This morning I faced the dreaded scale.  It wasn't a big surprise that I had gained a couple of pounds.  It's a starting point, right?
I then recorded my measurements in this cool tracker that Becky got me at Barnes and Noble.

You record all of your body measurements and it even has some fitness tests.  You record how long it takes you to run a mile, how many push-ups, sit-ups, squats, balance that you can do at the start.  Then you record for the whole year and you see the results!  It also has a workout and food journal.  At the end of each month, there's a page where you summarize everything and see your progress.  I am pretty excited about it.  I really like these kinds of things.

I also needed to look for a running plan to follow.  Otherwise, I really don't have any motivation to hit the pavement.  I looked at my race schedule and my next race is in March, the Blarney 5K Run/Walk.  I printed out Hal's 5K Intermediate Plan.  It is exactly the number of days until the race and this way I can work on getting faster (in theory).

Yesterday, I started knitting a blanket.  I really don't knit and wanted to try and make something.  I decided to make squares using different stitches.  That way, I make a blanket and perfect different stitches.  I have a book with a bunch of knitting stitches in it.  I finished the Stockinette stitch square (top) and the Moss stitch square (bottom).

I'm going to make the blanket 3x4 squares.  I'm using wool and it is going to be a really warm blanket.

My cat was not a fan of me knitting, though.  Every time he would come lay on my lap he would get bopped with the knitting needle.  Then, he would get up and give me the stink eye.

What's your favorite hobby?

That's What She Said

Hey! Did anyone know that it's election day?
I got up early on my day off to make sure I got my vote in.  This is the first year that I had to wait at all.  I ended up being in line from start to finish for an hour!  It must have been the time I went, because my friend goes to the same place to vote and she said she was in and out in 15 minutes.

After that, I worked a bit on a sweater I am knitting.  I hadn't realized how long it has been since I knitted until I was trying to make the first two loops.  It took me a good 20 minutes!  Yeesh!  And the first two rows took about two hours.  Now that I am getting the hang of it again it is going much faster.

The sweater I'm making.  

I went over to my mom's about mid morning to do some cleaning and walk her favorite child  dog.  I made Asia a sweater and I wanted her to try it on to make sure it fit.  It actually fit really well!  I am going to add a collar and edging to it and maybe a couple of more flowers to give it a more finished look.

Asia really likes wearing sweaters.  She is so cute.

On our walk

It was funny to watch people slow down and check Asia out on our walk.  They would see her and start laughing.  She is such a cutie.  Too bad normal sized dog clothes don't fit.  I may have to become the Lane Bryant of dog clothes.  A friend of mine already asked me to make her dog an outfit since store bought clothes don't fit him.

I was waiting for Becky to get home from work so we could go run together.  It was pretty chilly out, dark and had started drizzling and it was only 3:00p.m.  I made sure to wear bright colors so cars would see me us.  I also wanted to try my leg warmers.  They ended up falling down leaving my calves cold.  I will have to add a tighter row to the top to keep them up.  

You can see my leg warmers are already falling!

This run was a really good one!  I was a little jazzed up, because I had just drank some soda.  Caffeine has the effect on me as a bag of sugar would on a little kid.  Becky had to tell me to slow down a couple of times.  She knows that I would want to stop after the first mile if we kept up at the pace we were going.

My run time/miles.

How many times can you use, "That's what she said" in this blog?