tips, tricks and general advice

so there's this:

and then there's me. with some questions for you.

1. the gym. the firm at which i'm temping has graciously allowed me (read: i signed a waiver) to use the gym facilities in the building. honestly, i do think it was nice of them to let me have access. the gym itself is quite nice, with 4 treadmills, 2 things i presume are ellipticals, some recumbent bikes, weight equipment, free weights, pilates balls, showers, lockers, etc. other than the one night it took me four tries and what seemed like an eternity to open the locker with my stuff in it, i'd say it's gone well. but here's my question: i simply don't have time to shower, nor do i want to schlep more clothes than absolutely necessary with me. what's the best way not to offend my fellow metro riders on the train home? also, gym bags? where do the smelly clothes go while I tote my work clothes home safely? why is this so confusing?

2. music ideas. right now, i have a shorter playlist that includes things like Kim Wilde's Kids in America, Adele's Rolling in the Deep, Elastica's Stutter, Hole's Violet, some Go-Gos and Sugarcubes... but i could use some variety. there's plenty to choose from here, but what do you like to listen to while running?

3. speed. i'm pretty much convinced i cannot run faster than mach tortoise speed. after six months of mostly regular efforts, i can run 3-5 miles at about a slow 11:15-11:30 pace without too much trouble. of course, my breathing starts to go about 30 seconds into the run. i think i'd have to just be walking in order to maintain a conversation while moving. i'm not panting, but i can't converse. hmm. how's that for descriptive? also, i'm thinking i need to add intervals or tempo runs or hill training or something to work on speed issues, but i don't actually have any idea what i'm talking about here. why is this so confusing?

4. 8k. why didn't i put 8k on my 42 list? it says 5k under 30, 10k and half. clearly this was an oversight on my part. they are timing the 5k split for the St. Patty's race, but i don't think it will be under 30, knowing i have 3k left after that.

there you have it. if anyone wants to sponsor me with one of those fancy-schmancy tech shirts for running in, like these, well... i have an idea for a design.

thirty minutes or less

i usually have about half an hour to feed the zoo and myself between the time i get home and the time i hope to start studying, so i've been cooking on the weekends and then reheating leftovers or grabbing something from the freezer. this weekend, cauliflower and spinach were on sale, so i used the magic of the internets and found a recipe for ... wait for it ... wait for it ...

cauliflower and spinach casserole! it actually has some pasta in as well, so i'm not sure i'd call it a casserole. it needs more cheese - a mornay, not bechamel sauce would work wonders. maybe some mushrooms and/or black olives as well. of course, cheese is always on my mind, but momsie and i were also just talking about the healthiness of macaroni and cheese. 

anyhow, this was 1 c dried pasta (cooked), 2 c cauliflower florets (partially cooked), 4 c fresh spinach (chopped and wilted with 1 T minced garlic, ~ 2-3 t each dried oregano and basil and ~1-2 t red pepper flakes), 1 c frozen peas (tossed into the cooking spinach) and bechamel (2 c milk, 2 T flour, 2 T butter), baked at 350 for 20 minutes or so with some parm and panko over the top.
it's actually better reheated (in the toaster oven, so my topping crisped up some more)! either that or i'm just starving tonight.

frustration of purpose

Frustration of purpose occurs when an unforeseen event undermines a party's principal purpose for entering into a contract, and both parties knew of this principal purpose at the time the contract was made. Despite frequently arising as a result of government action, any third party (or even nature) can frustrate a contracting party's primary purpose for entering into the contract. (source: Wikipedia)

while there is no enforceable contract between me, myself and I, i did make a commitment to exercise regularly. there has been much frustration of my purpose over the last seven months. first, the fringe edges of Hurricane Irene fried the treadmill. then, i had to go and find some source of income during most of my daylight hours. now, mother nature gave us a teensy bit of snow covered with a layer of slippery sleet on a weekend. 

even buddy was moving slightly more cautiously on the crunchy winter mess. i'm terrified of slipping on ice, so i'm hoping tomorrow will be just warm enough and without more precipitation that i can get out and run in the afternoon. then it's back to the salt mines. the temp assignment is going well. the studying comes in waves. i'm getting it done, but i'm tired all the time. i question my choice to take this exam one more time. i keep plugging away. twenty-five or thirty-three questions during lunch hours. lectures five evenings of seven. locating, reviewing, reorganizing, refining existing outlines. procrastinating on practice essays. lather. rinse. repeat. five more weeks. i can do this. i want to do this. i will do this. 

return to the food trucks

hmm, that title sounds a bit more triumphant than i'm feeling this morning. anyhow, you may recall i treated myself to a sampling of the food trucks when last gainfully employed. this week, i picked up my first paycheck of the new year and decided to splurge on a truck that wasn't around then.

Volathai by the Fojol Bros.

yes, it looks familar, as the Fojols have two other tasty trucks - Merlindia and Benethopia, all with tasty food and mustachioed, costumed purveryors. i had fresh from the wok beef drunken noodles - thin slices of beef, basil, red & green peppers and some good heat - and the green, green curry - brussels sprouts!, peas, bamboo shoots & corn in coconut milk creamy green curry.

this won't be a weekly treat just yet, but it was a pleasant treat for a lunch spent running adminsterial errands. onward!

p.s. i think the second cup of coffee is perking me up a bit.

three day weekends

i needed this one. five days of carefully plotted out appointments, working, studying and an attempt at exercise left me more than a bit discombobulated. case in point? i rushed home Friday night, book (er, kind1e) in hand, to feed the zoo and get to book club on time, even though i ended up being only 70% done with the book. walking up to the meeting location, i realized that book club is the third Friday of every month, i.e., this week, not last Friday. on the plus side, i should easily be able to finish the book on the metro this week before the actual meeting. 

one of the reasons i like going to this book club is that they only read non-fiction by female authors. this month, we're reading a biography of dorothy parker, entitled Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? by Marion Meade. i've never been a big reader of non-fiction outside of required reading for schoolwork, so being a part of the group has broadened my horizons a bit. other than the fact that no one else loved Tina Fey's Bossypants, which i am blaming on a generation gap, i quite enjoy hearing the other members' perspectives. 

i also found myself struggling to read in general after law school, which seemed like such a foreign side effect to me. i have always read, read, read, for as long as i can remember, but just didn't want to after four years of going to work and class and keeping up with all the required reading, while retaining enough information to spit it back out on an exam.

anyhoo, i also tried to take a few more pictures at the lake while the migratory birds are there. what can i say? some times the magic works, some times it doesn't. the current header photo may be common goldeneyes, which made me want to actually watch GoldenEye (Pierce Brosnan-era James Bond flick with Famka Janssen, Judi Dench and Sean Bean). here's a blue jay, which i see far less frequently than the ubiquitous cardinals and mockingbirds.

under cover of the night

so i have a friend who keeps encouraging me to apply for a job in Alaska. actually, i think he's hoping for just about any one else to come join him in the great North. no way. i can't even manage the 9.5 hour days here well.*

walking home down Pennsylvania Avenue is beautiful, but it's dark! and this is all I saw of yesterday's snow...

in fairness, the snow did not linger. it was pretty perfect for a first snow - large, fluffy flakes that mostly melted on roadways, barely covered the yard and disappeared overnight.

*he's in southern Alaska, so the days are actually not that much shorter. still.

just another boring post about food with camera phone photos

Week one of working and studying done. I'm tired. Seven weeks to go. I tried a slow cooker meal last week that turned out ok, but i think i'll have to get a digital timer for the outlet if i want to cook more slow cooker meals, as i'm typically gone longer than your usual cook times and my basic crock pot does not have a timer.  

This was 8 oz. dried giant limas (soaked overnight) with an 8 oz. chicken breast, 1 medium diced sweet onion, 1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with jalapenos and 1.5 cups Peruvian chicken stock (from a Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken a while back) cooked for about 8.5 hours. I shredded the chicken, stirred it back in and served it over cornbread. I'd eat this again.

Today, my apples were more bruised than expected; my bread did not bake properly; and my baked chicken and green olive burritos burned. I'm not sure what happened with the bread, but the burritos just spent too much time in the oven. I thought i had turned the heat off when i was feeding the cats and dog, but i had not. They're still edible, just not what i was hoping for. Now back to the endless to do list and scheduling out the week.