Nice Shoozies

Here are some pics of my new kicks!

I am very excited about them.

As you can see, my Pumas have seen better days.

I know I made a good choice because the front end manager at the Northridge Target complimented me on them!

I didn't wear them to yoga tonight though because I was afraid someone might steal them (because you take your shoes off at the door). Which I know is a little ridiculous because it's a wonderful yoga studio in West Bend. I find it hard to believe someone that goes there would be a thief, but you never know, right?! Even if it is literally in a corn field across the street from a dairy farm. They are pretty sweet -- I'd want to steal them. What do you think -- am I crazy to not wear them there?

Persian Rice

My sister requested this recipe, so I thought since I was taking the time to type it up, might as well post it too. :)

Rob made this a couple weeks ago with Chicken Tagine (also from the Joy of Cooking). It was super delicious. I can't take credit for how either of the recipes turned out because it was 100% him. I'm so lucky. <3

Persian Rice (Rombauer, Irma, Becker Rombauer, Marion, and Becker, Ethan. Joy of Cooking. 1997. Scribner: New York.) 4 to 6 servings Traditionally Persian rice is cooked slowly in a heavy pot over direct heat so that a delicious crust, called tah dig, forms on the bottom. The crust is lifted out and served either on top of the soft cooked rice or in a separate dish. In this simplified version, the rice is baked in a nonstick skillet and inverted like a large pancake, with the crisp rice on top and the soft cooked rice underneath. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bring to boil in a large pot: 4 quarts water 1 tablespoon salt Stir in: 2 cups white basmati rice 1 cinnamon stick 3 whole cloves 3 black peppercorns ¼ teaspoon cardamom seeds (from about 3 pods) Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the rice is almost tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and let stand in a sieve until ready to use. (Leave the spices in the rice.) Melt in a large ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium heat: ¼ cup (1 stick) butter Spoon off 3 tablespoons of the butter and reserve. Add to the skillet: 1 cup thinly sliced onions ¼ teaspoon saffron threads Cook, stirring, until the onions are golden, about 8 minutes. Spread the onions in an even layer in the skillet. Stir into the cooked rice: 2 tablespoons diced dried apricots 2 tablespoons dried sweet or sour cherries or golden raisins Salt to taste Spoon the rice over the onions. Smooth the top of the rice with the back of a large spoon and press down very firmly to pack it. Drizzle the reserved butter evenly over the top. Cover with a double layer of aluminum foil, pressing down on the top and crimping the edges. Transfer to the oven and bake for 1 hour. Let stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Uncover the rice and invert a large round platter over the skillet. Protecting your hands with a dish towel, turn the skillet and platter over, allowing the rice to drop onto the platter. Sprinkle with ¼ cup chopped pistachios.

A few notes on our (Rob's) modifications:
We didn't really read the recipe too closely before going to the grocery store. So, we used ground cloves, not whole cloves, ground black pepper, not peppercorns, and ground cardamom, not seeds. We also didn't have the dried apricots. Oh, and we used turmeric instead of saffron. After draining the rice, we did add a bit more of the spices since we didn't have the whole stuff and some of it did get thrown out with the water.

 Chicken tagine

 The whole meal -- thanks, Rob, it was great!!

Success

Well, Rob and I made it through our first 5k on Friday night -- the Color Run! All day I had butterflies in my stomach -- I'm not sure if I was nervous or just excited! We met up with my cousin Kate and her friends and caravaned into Miller Park in our white t-shirts. There were 10,000 runners/walkers signed up for the race and they let people off in batches of about 1,500. Man. That was a looonnnggg wait. The worst part of the whole thing was the fact we had to stand around for hours before the race started. (Also, I didn't have my lip gloss and I was dying). And there was no water! That was a little ridiculous. But, whatever.

Every kilometer, you ran through a different color zone -- yellow, blue, orange and pink. At the color zones everyone's pace kind of slowed down to a walk -- so that probably helped us make it through! The water line was also pretty long (and disorganized and irritating) so that slowed us down a bit too. But I'm not complaining because it gave us much needed rest for the course -- there were quite a few hills!! The only other time we walked was for like literally 30 seconds at the peak of the largest hill (per Rob's request! :))

Once we got through the finish line, we headed over for some water then to the Finish Line Festival. All participants got a packet of color with the race and this is where we all would throw them in unison. It was a blast. I'm pretty sure I dumped my entire packet right on myself! Schwoops.

Then we headed over to Friday's for some much needed food and beer. It was great.

For my first 5k, I think this was the perfect inauguration. Thanks, Kate, for letting us be a part of your team! Overall, we had a blast! Rob keeps talking about doing one every season, so I guess we better get cracking finding one for fall!

Photos courtesy of Kate -- I didn't schlepp my camera on the run and my phone isn't fancy enough to get the photos off of it. :)

 Before -- all white!

 We made it!

 Thanks, Kate! You're the best!!

Yepppp

[Insert Rocky Theme Song Here]

Okay, okay, I take it all back!

Today, I had a great run! In fact, I feel so good that I don't even care how Friday goes at the actual 5k. After today, I feel like I can say I accomplished my goal.

So tonight I decided that I'd go run the route I mapped out that's 3.1 miles. My knee was feeling much better today and I thought, just go and run for as long as you can. If you have to walk, then walk. Don't kill yourself. I stopped twice to get a drink of water from a bubbler that's outside of some public building and I walked up one small hill going into an intersection. Otherwise, I ran the full 3.1 miles!! I feel so great. I had to stop by myself from pumping my arms above my head when I finished because there was a family near by having a picnic.

Maybe I just am better at running alone with my music on. I don't know. Was I pushing myself too hard last Friday trying to set my pace against Rob's? Or was it Friday and I was tired? Same thing on Monday?

I don't know. Maybe I won't even be able to do it again. But I DID IT!!!

I definitely feel like the 8-9 weeks of training has paid off today. And you know what, on Friday I'm going to focus on having a good time and not stress about making sure I run the whole time.

Summer Days Slippin Away

Wow, so far I'm proving to be terrible at blogging! I am determined though to not have this be something that falls by the wayside because there's "no time." I really could use another hour or two a day. (Oh -- you know what that would be -- not commuting 45 minutes one way every day. Duh). But, until we figure that out, I'm going to make the most of it and try. I have all of these good ideas when I'm driving, in the shower, etc. And now I can already tell this post is going to be rambling.

Summer is definitely winding down here in Wisconsin. There has been a crispness in the air the past week or so that is unmistakable. I love fall, so I'm not too sad. The other great thing is that this week summer hours ended at work. What are summer hours you ask? They are the most horrible thing ever. You work from 7am-4:3pm Monday-Thursday and then 7am-11am on Fridays. Now, sometimes it's nice to have that Friday afternoon off -- run errands to the bank or post office, make plans, or only have to use 4 vacation hours to have the whole day off. But you know what gets really old when you have a 45 minute commute? Waking up at 5:15am. It's just too damn early for this girl. It's not like I got to bed early really ever. So, instead of functioning on an average of 7 or 8 hours of sleep I was consistently getting only 6. And that is just not good. I can tell already that I'm less cranky, able to concentrate better at work. And, I'm less hungry! It's science -- not getting enough sleep makes you produce more of the hunger hormone ghrelin. (I read it in a magazine, I swear). I'm going to start a petition to make summer hours optional. It just doesn't work for me. Maybe this schedule change will also help me be better at posting!

Here's another short run-down on other things:
5K
So, the Color Run is right around the corner on Friday!! I am excited but also feeling a little bit down about it. Last Friday Rob and I went for about a 3 mile run outside -- the first time I ran outside since training (in hindsight, not the best idea to wait that long). Not only was it way harder than running on the treadmill for me, my knee has been killing me ever since. We went for a shorter run on Monday outside again and still -- not good. I just couldn't run the whole time. Both times I was this close to giving up and crying. It's so frustrating because I just spent 8 weeks training and I feel like I have nothing to show for it! Rob was encouraging me and saying you couldn't run a mile 8 weeks ago -- you have accomplished so much! But, I don't know. It's not helping. I'm still disappointed. I thought let's stop focusing on "losing weight" and instead get in better shape -- start running, yes, also try to eat well, but let the weight take care of itself. So now not only have a not lost any weight (today I am starting to think this may have to blame with my ghrelin theory above), I apparently still can't run either. I know I'm being a tad bit dramatic, but It's just disappoint.

Wedding
This weekend we got our timeline done. Whew. There is a lot to do and most of it seems pretty front-heavy. Next step is finding a photographer.

We had a lovely weekend. On Sunday we went to the Art Museum to see the Poster of Paris special exhibit.

Wedding Planning and Social Media

It occurs to me that planning a wedding in "this day and age" is quite different than previously -- particularly when it comes to the saturation of social media in our every day lives. (Oh, hello, blog!) It makes me wonder, how much is too much?

Think about it: when others you know have gotten married -- when did you find out where they were having it? Depending on how close you are to the person and if you're in their wedding party, probably at most a few months before. (Unless you're like the mother of the bride or sister, or other close family to the couple).

Well, we just put the deposit down on our venue today and I posted it to Facebook. So, ostensibly, everyone I know who sees will know where the wedding will be held.

When you have found out about colors or decorations or centerpieces? Again, unless you're intimately involved, probably not until you get there! With my Pinterest boards though complete strangers can see what I'm thinking about for ideas.

Does this ruin the surprise? Or doesn't it really matter?

I almost thought about pinning things I didn't like just to throw people off of my scent. That's crazy, right?! Plus, Rob told me he read in Blink by Malcolm Gladwell that even if you know the ending of something, it doesn't diminish your appreciation or enjoyment of the activity (e.g., a book or a movie).

So, I guess I'm feeling like I'm going to treat this like I would any other event in my life -- may show up on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or this blog or maybe it won't! I mean, one of the things I do need to keep reminding myself is that besides my Facebook, everything else is out there for the world to see, so there are some topics that should are just off-limits. Like _________________.

XO

Carolyn