"Eyes on the prize, reboot the mission"

With it being marathon season again, I feel as if all the blogs I read are chock full of challenges and proud moments of accomplishments. I'm a bit envious. I've not really had anything big accomplished, (well, yes, the wedding and all) but nothing big for me personally. I've been cooking more but I'm not 100% sure how to morph that into a challenge. Something about making a challenge out of making more vegan dinners and delicious healthy meals just feels a bit blah right now. If I weren't worried about us both ballooning up I'd do a Julie & Julia-esqe challenge involving our Eric Ripert or Voltaggio brothers book. Food does not seem to be the way to go. 

I do have more races coming up... this past weekend was a 5k where I did decidedly not awesome 38mins or so, but I had fun and it was my best time in awhile. In December there is the trail 10k in the mountains. I'm very nervous about that but glad that it's not about my time, just about surviving. I'm really enjoying the onset of Northern California's rainy winter season and the Los Gatos Creek Trail near us.

Los Gatos Trail and also the scene of the crime for the 5k

Ed loves pictures pre-race

 You should have seen how excited I was for rain the other night. Ed looked at me like I was insane. I do enjoy training so I thought maybe I could do a challenge involving activities. Some sound a little intimidating (i.e. 1000 push-ups in a week) but I think maybe I can make it work for me. So for the month of November I'm going to pick one or two exercises per week and see how many I can do that week:

1st Week (1st-8th): Running & Walking (essentially on-foot travel)
2nd Week (8th-15th): Visiting Ck in L.A. so squats and lunges. Doesn't require much space!
3rd Week (15th-22nd): Push-ups. This exercise needs no partner the way I struggle with it.
4th Week (22nd-29th): Right over Thanksgiving time, so I'll go for planks and crunches this week.

The rule of thumb I was given was to take the most you can do in one set and multiply it by 35 and there's your number for the week. 

1st- Current longest distance ~ 3.5 miles so let's just say at least 3.5 miles traveled each day = 24.5 miles
2nd- 40ish for both probably = 1400 of each
3rd- Real push-ups? 5. On my knees? 10. So let's start low and hope for high results = 175 - 350
4th- Sadly, I can probably only do about 35 crunches and my planks only last 60 seconds = 1225 crunches and 2100 seconds of planking.

I'm just guesstimating/modifying the numbers and rules. I mean obviously I could NOT run 122.5 miles in a week. I'm hoping actually that I'll be surprised at how low these numbers are compared to what actually gets done. Wouldn't that be nice?

Another challenge I've found to balance out the activity is Deepak Chopra's 21-day Meditation Challenge.

Anyone else have any favorite challenges they want to share or want to join in on this one?

Update wise, Ed's birthday is this Friday and we're off to Yosemite with Dad and Debbie! I'm pretty excited. Ed bought a new bike since his was stolen a week or so ago. I'm getting twitchy about the holidays. Missing family and friends and excited for all the holiday festivities.

I finished three more books:

- Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness: the second book in her trilogy about supernatural beings with a heavy dose of the historical. It follows a romantic relationship between a witch and a vampire and I cannot get enough. They are looooong books though so prepare to settle in. They aren't hard to read, but there are tons of characters and back story to keep straight.

- Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes: NOT for the faint of heart. It is frightening and graphic and intense. Frankly, it's 'unputdownable.' But yes, very graphic violence and sexual situations, but they are separated by long tortured moments of psychological terror. I love a good scary book (P.S. Kindle readers, as I'm posting this, it's only 2 bucks on amazon! I still wait for all my books to come thru the library but for those of you that buy, that's a great deal)

- Why Have Kids? by Jessica Valenti: This book about modern motherhood and the push for 'natural' parenting is also terrifying and yet for me, reassuring. It's terrifying because a lot of things I was taking for granted are rooted in not so great things, like tying women to homes and children and pushing them away from the workplace. Subverting women's happiness for the happiness of the child (or - even scarier - for the happiness of a possible future child). I'm glad things like this are being talked about. I think this is a really good book for every woman and man to read about what is happening with motherhood and parenting.

And last but not least, I joined a new roundtable! This is for The Walking Dead on AMC. I'll post links to it when it goes up. :)

"Girlfriend in a coma..."

Yes I'm still alive. I have been majorly slacking in pretty much every department possible except apartment hunting. I've been in an apartment hunting coma. When we realized we had to move out in less than a month because we weren't going to be in the country when our lease ends, I grabbed the opportunity to not think about wedding things or running or weight loss and held onto it like Kate Winslet held onto that damn floating door. (On that note, have you seen this? Cracked me up)

We did find an apartment and are in the process of applying for it. It'll be my first experience with long-term living in a place with.... wait for it.... no. air. conditioning. Pray for me. And Ed.

Back to other things going on (pictures to be added soon!)... Ck stopped by with the boys and we had an amazing visit. Finally made our way to the Academy of Sciences and I would like to say, um, why did no one tell me how amazing it was?! Even swamped as it was with families and mad children running about, I could not get over all the beautiful creatures and displays. We spent a little time in downtown Mountain View and Ck convinced me to get this bag I've been looking at for awhile. It's higher quality than I usually invest in so I needed some encouragement. Saying I love this bag is an understatement. It's perfectly relaxed and cheery and I'm glad I have my sister there to push me down the right purchasing path. :)

Wedding wise, we're scrambling to get rsvp's from people and solid numbers. Money is flying out the window it seems. Well, it is but it just feels all of a sudden because now all the large costs are upon us. Most recently I decided on my undergarments, jewelry, and cover-up bolero (I get hot and will be in a strapless dress.... if you want to hug me, I'll need some protective cover first!). We've also laid out our plans for the tables and when Mom sends me pictures of all the pieces coming together... I just want to cry in delight. It's still all a bit chaotic and in pieces, but it's really going to be everything I wanted it to be from the very start. And I've said it before (I hope) and I'll say it a million times more, my family has been indispensable and has contributed so much time and effort and money to this wedding.... I don't know how I can ever thank you all enough for every thought or action you have ever added to the cause. Some of you may think it's tacky to mention money, but for those in the family that cannot help out physically, their financial support has been just as important and essential. I am eternally grateful and I can only imagine the gratitude I will feel on Sept 1st. Forgive me if I seem a bit overwhelmed. :)

Wedding nail color

RSVP's

Wedding Jewelry!

In terms of running... Oh my have I been slacking. It's a bit ridiculous. I did sign up for a new race in November. A 10K trail run of all things! So that'll be good and difficult. For whatever reason I've just had a hard time motivating myself to do anything physical. On the bright side I'm miraculously losing weight. I am thiiiiiiiis close to breaking through 190. That would be amazing. I think the stress of everything leads me to not eat.... and when I do eat, I'm snacking on all the healthy goodies I've brought home from Sprout that week. Summer is a glorious time. It is just too easy to eat healthfully.

These past few months out here as a housewife on my own have really taught me the importance of planning for the home. Knowing who likes to snack on what and when and how much. I doubt my cooking is much better but I am still experimenting. This past week I set out determined to make something new and to also try again with Vanilla ice-cream. I settled on mint ice cream using the peppermint leaves from our plant upstairs. It turned out so delicious! And the vanilla recipe I actually pulled from Joy of Cooking. And lord it is the best one I've made so far. I doctored it up a bit with 2 Tahitian vanilla beans along with the tbsp of vanilla flavoring, and it only called for 2-3 eggs. Let me tell you... ya'll don't know how many eggs go into your ice cream. It would have been unfathomable to me before if you came up and said, "You know, there are 12 eggs in that cute little pint of ice cream you just ate in one sitting." I would have laughed in your face. Well. I started looking at ice cream recipes and now I know the truth! Damn you ice cream.... sneaking in ingredients in your adorable deliciousness.

Let's see... last little bit of news, we bought a new computer! Yay! I love new computers. Usually when I get my hands on one it's because I've destroyed the last one somehow. Hopefully Ed will keep me on the straight and narrow with this computer. Technology and I.... that's a hate-hate relationship right there. Don't even get me started on my iphone again. I managed to get music on it for about 3 weeks. And then I can't do it again. Godforsaken phone....

And along with the new computer, I've been very kindly asked to participate in a True Blood roundtable on Racialicious! I'm beyond excited and also terrified out of my mind. I love in depth discussions in person but on the internet it can get a bit scary. People don't just debate, they can stomp all over you, and having a backbone doesn't exactly come naturally to me. But I want to step up and take this opportunity to participate in something I've truly enjoyed reading and commenting on with Joe after each posting. It's new and insightful and I hope you guys enjoy looking into it. I'll post links to everything when it gets all set up.

I BADLY need to write reviews of the books I've been reading so maybe I'll get to that this week, on this brand-spankin'-new machine here. Currently I'm working on Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness and it is just as good as I was hoping it would be. :)

I think that's a good belated wrap up of things. Now to make dinner for the man and watch some Justified!
Thanks for sticking with me :)