honduras

This is where I'm going when I visit Kari in Honduras in January. Yes!

the most lopsided haircut ever!

Pictures! Huzzah!

These are the two pictures I took while camping before my camera battery died:



Get an idea of how cold it was? COLD! The temperature the first night was only 5 or 6 degrees warmer than it is now (33 now, 38 the first night. 48 most of Saturday). That's my extended family: Andrew, my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law, Andrew's two cousins (5 and 3) and his uncle. Andrew and I are planning a trip to the North Shore with some friends in February but this time we're going to go the cabin route. Maybe my battery won't die that weekend and I can actually show you something!

This week's recipes:



Autumn mac and cheese! It had butternut squash and apples roasted in it. My oven did something weird for the second half of the recipe; it was like it stopped heating. At least everything in the dish was pre-cooked. It just needed to congeal together for autumny goodness. See how there's still unmelted cheese on top?

I'm going to try it again at some point. I told Andrew today that I want to eat as much squash as possible before it goes out of season!


I made some venison and black bean chili with venison from my grandparents. It was just ok - maybe since I made some chili verde a few weeks that was utterly fantastic, every chili in comparison is a little lacking. This picture isn't particularly appetizing, but it was a good solid chili. I forgot to take a picture of it before eating!


I got a haircut last Friday that was a disaster! I had to go back and have the dude even it out for me since there was such a large chunk out of the right side. It was noticeably uneven. The end result ended up being shorter than I would have liked, but the good thing about short is that it'll aways grow out. It's much shorter on the sides than I've had it before, making it less of a bob. It's still pretty cute though. In this picture it's a little wet and unstyled after my post-workout shower.

All right, time to go and do some laundry. I just handwashed all my workout clothes and then realized I should have just thrown it in with all the rest of the laundry - oh well!

Before I go: Extra bonus points to the first person who can name the building in the painting on the right in my haircut picture!

here we go!

Speaking of goal setting...

I'm kind of psyched to participate in Amanda's Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge at Run to the Finish. I've been reading her blog for a few months now and I've enjoyed reading her insights - plus who doesn't like her gratitude journal at the end of all her posts?


I've been on and off with the running for the past few months/weeks. I stopped working at the Y and my rental company's gym closed (rats!), it was too hot for me to run outside (lazy!), I get busy with work (excuses!), etc.

But if I really want to run the Cellcom half marathon in May, I need to start being consistent about building a base before starting increasing my distance. That goes back to tracking my workouts, making the time to get to the gym and sticking with my schedule. Earlier this week, Andrew and I went to the YWCA to redeem our year family membership that I won awhile back. I'm primed for committing to half marathon training - consistent access to a gym, a goal to work towards, a regular schedule I can plan around. I think the HBBC will be exactly the type of additional motivation I need to stay on track.

Mom - whatcha thinking? I bet I can get more points than you!


In the words of Mario... here we go!

80 book update - two months to go!

60 book update! Well, I've bumped it up to 80 books in 2010. Here are the books from October:

65. The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson
66. Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson
67. Salvation City, Sigrid Nunez
68. The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
69. Dirty Sexy Politics, Meghan McCain
70. Every Last One, Anna Quindlen
71. Heat Wave, Richard Castle
72. Between Two Worlds, Roxana Saberi
73. Work Hard. Be Nice, Jay Mathews
74. Sex at Dawn, Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha

I really liked The Ghost Map; it's a great nonfiction book about epidemiology and cholera. Makes those stories about cholera in Haiti seem even more pointless - we know how cholera spreads and how to survive it. The only reason people are dying is because of poverty. Plain and simple.

Also liked the Stieg Larsson books. I'm waiting on the last one... hopefully soon! I'm near the top on the waiting list. Every Last One was surprisingly good, also.

I actually really like the majority of the books I read last month. I won't say which one I liked the least because that would be singling it out. It'd be a hard pick; I really like most of them and was indifferent bordering on slight liking for the rest.

So I adjusted my goal from 60 books in 2010 to 80 (I hit 60 on August 31, fyi). I think I'm going to have to adjust it again, just to keep it realistic. I'm already halfway done with book 75, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Or is it tracking now? Am I not motivated by a goal, but has the goal helped form a year-long habit? I mean, I've always been a big reader, but each year I read a little more than the year before. 2007 - 47; 2008 - 53; 2009 - 63; 2010 - upwards of 75. I'd say not being a student, riding the bus, and close proximity to a library have all contributed to this being a banner year in the 50 book challenge.

If only I had this kind of foresight and discipline in all my other goal setting...

north shore

So we went camping this weekend. It was cold. It was see-your-breath cold. It was 4 layers, hats, gloves, running tights under the pants cold.

There was a good deal of fun, though. Lots of hiking and who knew that the North Shore had so many waterfalls? Not me.

My camera died after two pictures, but I managed to take some more with my phone. Here are some to start you off:



Off to water my plants... they look a little sad and lonely after a weekend away. They should get used to it - next weekend is Green Bay!

some blue sweatpants and a blue swimsuit top

Let me tell you about the time I dressed as Princess Jasmine for Halloween, circa 1992...

something besides cooking

Well, the Bittman is good. I had it delivered to my work (so we wouldn't have to pick it up from the post office). It arrived on a busy day and I put it on the open desk space next to mine so I could have more room. Then, about an hour after I came home from work, I sat up and said, "I left the cookbook at work!" Yup, after all my excitement about the cookbook, I left work without the package. I hadn't even opened it and it slipped my mind.

Andrew and I went back to get it, of course, and he got to see our new office space. Before, the office was a windowless cave in a business park. Now, it's a big, bright suite in a building with other social services. The difference is between night and day. I was only in the old office for a few weeks, but it was completely depressing.

The other night we had Amy, Drew, Eric and Nelson over for dinner. Nelson's birthday happened to be a few days earlier so I baked him an apple tart to celebrate (definitely not because we had a lot of apples from going apple picking. Definitely not).

Nelson had also run his first marathon the day before so he totally deserved a birthday tart.

In two weekends, Andrew and I are going camping with a bunch of his family members. I'm pretty excited, if only because it's been ages since I've gone camping.

This is our new tent, a wedding present from his parents. They also found a good price on a sleeping bag and some camping chairs so that gets to come camping with us too! We're going to a state park north of Duluth, which will make it my first trip through Duluth. The leaves will probably be off the trees by then, but it might still be pretty.

I've decided what I want to be for Halloween:

I've always wanted to be Princess Leia but for the past few years my hair hasn't been long enough. Since I've been poor and haven't had a hair cut in months, I'll hold out for a few more weeks in the name of Halloween. I think we might be going to Green Bay for Halloween, if only because the trick-or-treating is better.

I hate the Yankees.

This one's for my mom:


Time to read, put away laundry and dishes, sweep... basically return the apartment to a state of cleanliness. Bacher out!