Veggietables

We have a baby bell pepper! Don't worry, it's supposed to be little. We bought this plant because I thought it looked adorable. Don't ask me what I'm supposed to do with baby bell peppers...because I have no idea.

We have tomatoes! I ate the first one a couple days ago. It was sweet, juicy and delicious. Now I want the rest to get ripe so I can gobble them up too!

And we have zucchini. It's little. It sat on the vine for a week before I finally picked it yesterday. I think the pot the plant is in stunted it a little bit. I kept meaning to get a bigger pot and it just never happened...oh well, next year.

And I start tapering in four days! Aiee!

Ciao,
kc

WEDNESDAY: 5 miles
MONDAY: 4 miles + 11 mile bike (split)
SUNDAY: 10 miles

The Bieb

I never thought I'd say that I liked anything about the Bieb (a.k.a. Justin Bieber)...until today. At my second day of my internship I worked on a cover for a book about the Bieb. It wasn't that it was a particularly challenging cover to work on or anything, but what touched me today (and the Bieb helped me realize) is that I am not just playing anymore. I'm in the big leagues.

Stuff that I am working on and touching and being a part of will be available to millions.

It's a rather humbling, shocking, fantastic, elating, nerve-wracking, surprising, wondering feeling all rolled into one. It's just...wow.

New Movie Review

I reviewed Horrible Bosses (Bateman, Spacey, Aniston, Farrell, Foxx and more). Check it out.

Quick Cake

I was just sending an email off to my lovely Heather with the recipe for the infamous six-minute chocolate cake that has graced many a girls' nights as well as family time and satisfied quick cravings. I thought to myself, "Why haven't I put this on my blog? It's an invaluable recipe!"

Passed to me from my mother, who I think got it from the Moosewood Cookbook (though she'll correct me if I'm wrong), it is critical for those of us who have insatiable chocolate cravings and need a quick fix. If six minutes is too long, you cannot be helped.

Six Minute Chocolate Cake
 1 1/2 c flour
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sugar
1/2 c veggie oil
1 c cold h2o
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons vinegar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Sift dry ingredients into 9 inch round. In 2 c measuring cup, mix oil, water, and vanilla. Pour liquid into pan and whisk ingredients together. When batter is smooth, add vinegar and stir quickly just until vinegar is evenly distributed. Bake for 25 to 30 min.

And don't forget to add sugar!

In other quick news, the first day of my internship at Faceout Studio went fantastic. Getting up early was hard on my lonely day off, but I had fun and even learned some new tricks with Photoshop. I did a mechanical in the morning (which is where you're given the approved art for the cover and then have to extend it into a full jacket, complete with provided copy) and a proposal presentation in the afternoon. I can't wait to go back!

Ciao,
kc

Playlist

The weirdest songs inspire me get my groove on when I'm running. Here's a few:

1. Blood of Cu Chulainn - a music only theme from Boondock Saints

2. Cooler than Me by Mike Posner

3. Get it Shawty by Lloyd

4. Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace

5. Last Name by Carrie Underwood

Like I said, super odd. The first is a theme from Boondock Saints and it just smooths my stride out and puts me in a very zen place while I'm running. When I hit that one, I'll often repeat it once or twice — and at 5 minutes long it makes my runs go by! Cooler Than Me was my "power song" for my first marathon and gets me pumped ever since. Those of you who've heard it will know that it's not exactly what you'd think of when it comes to "power"...pretty laidback. Who knows.

Number 3 is one of the few pop/hip hop songs that never seems to get old. Maybe it's because you can hardly understand what he's saying so it's easy to zone out while he's "singing"...again, who knows. But if it works, who am I to argue?  Number 4 makes me air guitar if I'm not careful. It's one of the few "angry" artists in my repertoire. Heavy rock...the other one that gets me going like this one is Dr. Feelgood by Motly Crue.

The fifth is odd mostly because it's a country song and while my girlfriends used to tease me that I knew "an awful lot of lyrics to country songs for someone who hates country" — because I adore linedancing so much and went all the time when I was in college — I'm still not a number 1 fan of country. Maybe 1 in 20 or 30 of the songs in my collection are country songs (though I just downloaded two this morning...so that's not always true, though I also downloaded 4 songs of the music I normally listen to). Anyways, Carrie's fun and gets me into a bouncing beat. I also rock out to her Before He Cheats and Cowboy Casanova. Don't judge me 'til you've tried it.

Just wanted to share a little bit about some of the things that make me go when I'm running. And yes, I meant to just say "go."

Ciao,
kc

It's a good day

Tonight it rained. And poured. And a co-worker generously gave my bicycle and I a ride home so that we didn't have to and get all wet. And then when I arrived home, the sun broke through the clouds and shined. Shined so much that I couldn't bear to not go run.

It helps that I had one badass day at work. I defined kick ass rockstar status today. Not that I'm bragging or anything. But I did. I finished off with a 3.67 accessory ratio on 9 phones. I have never sold that kind of ratio on phones before. Well, on that many phones before. Usually, when you've got that many phones out it means its an "add a line" day, which is fantastic because it hits your "new" bucket, but it usually means what those of us in the trade call "naked" feature phones -- no accessories, no data, no nuthin. Barely a payout at 50% of the $9.99 that the line costs the customer to add it to their bill. 

But today, I hit a groove thang and rocked that shit.

I'm not pumped or anything either.

So you know, 3.67 means I sold approximately 3.67 accessories per phone (i.e. case, car charger, screen protectors, bluetooth headsets, headphones, docking stations, car mounts, etc.).

Anyways.

Went for a painful run...painful because I wanted to get 'er done so I ran hard. Just 3 miles, but after the cold that wiped me out this weekend "just" is not a little word. Last Tuesday (a week and a half ago), I ran part of the course for my half marathon in August.

I don't know if you can tell in the photo, but that's not a tan. It's dirt! I had to wash my shoes when I got home! Did 9.25 miles in the hot hot hot and got my feet diiiiiiiiirty! It was fun though, the trail is beautiful and should be interesting to do 13.1 on.

I also found new shoes!

Amazon.com had 'em on sale (whoohoo) at 82 bucks (hey, it's $35 less than I usually put down for 'em) and then my fabulous Amazon card had points on it (because I love Amazon) and so I only had to spend $22 for 'em! Hooray! Cheapest running shoes ever.

And now I shall finish this post with a brief montage of Maddie.

No, I don't love my cat at all...why would you think something like that? She's not the focal point of 90% of my cellphone pictures, and she definitely doesn't run our lives! Nooo...though if we're not sure what we used to talk about before we got our precious Terrorist...is that a bad thin?

Ciao,
kc

Victory Garden

This is going to be a blog with mostly pictures. Though I do have a few things to say.

Our first baby tomato, on our Sungold tomato plant. Our Valley Girl hasn't yet started producing.

Our tomato plants are going ballistic, don't you love their homemade poles (those are recycled ski poles) and covers?

In pot on the left is Catnip that Maddie protects fiercely...through the window, I might add...mint and a small strawberry plant. In the pot on the right is our sole surviving zucchini plant that now, a week later is four times that size.

Clockwise from top rectangular pot: chocolate mint, basil, and another strawberry; marigolds, spanish something (I don't remember, but it's not doing well), and another strawberry; summer squash; mini bell peppers.

They're doing great. The lettuce in the front yard however, thinks its too damn hot. Which it is for lettuce.

In other news, and this is not necessarily new news because I was so excited for her that I told most everyone who reads this blog anyways, but I wanted to share because I'm so incredibly happy for her. Okay, here it goes:

My lovely wonderful little sister (Chi Omega sorority sister, soul sister, sister of my heart) is engaged! As much as I grumble about the multitude of weddings that have invaded my life, I am happy and excited for her because he's pretty wonderful too and they've been together forever and darn it, it's about time.

Congratulations, Siobhan and Michael. I love you!

Okay, now I have to go figure out how I'm going to run 9 miles. Wish me luck!

Ciao,
kc

So Running

So running...I promised I would tell you about it. I ran this morning and oh man you should have heard the internal line of whining. I did not want to run this morning. I did because I'm supposed to run tonight, but boyfriend is coming home today after being gone for a week and a half and when I'm being perfectly honest with myself (which I always try to be) I know I'm not going to get around to it this evening.

Why would I when I haven't seen him for a week and a half? While it's not that long, I get to see him for less than 24 hours. Only a little more than 12 hours really, and most of that will probably be spent sleeping. (You know, because it's night and all).

Anyways, so running.

I'm probably where I was at this time last year, definitely whining about it (but let's face it, that just doesn't go away and it's intensified when one has to be self motivated...at least for me) and slow. Slow is fine. This is nothing new to me. I have always been slow.

Thanks, Dad, for bestowing upon my genetics the desire to run but I would have appreciated the fast genes as well. (He ran in college for those of you not in the know. And he was pretty good too. I've seen the trophies.)

Running.

It hurts so good. I hope I run for the rest of my life. Running my eight miler the other day had me elated and exhausted. I kept thinking to myself, why did I stop for the last six months? Today, I remembered why I stopped.

1. I'm not a good self-motivator. Never have been in that regard. Have to have something like a race (5 weeks!) to get my butt in gear. Good news is that lack of self-motivation is offset by the fact that I hate to quit.

2. Running is boring by yourself unless you're in a groove. I ran exactly 3 miles this morning. Every single one was like pulling teeth. My body was still waking up, I couldn't find a rhythm, yadda yadda yadda. Grooves are nice, today was not one.

3. Snow is cold. And hard to run in. Even with a race, it's a huge deterrent, as we discovered back in April. Ooops.

4. Everyone needs a break for a while to get back to the place where it's fun again.

But...I run because...

1. It makes me feel good. It's hard to have a really bad day after a run. Even after a bad run, its hard to have a bad day.

2. It makes me sound like a badass and feeds my ego (which really doesn't need any help, but you know...if I have one flaw a little ego ain't bad).

3. It is actually fun if you're in a groove and can go for miles. And miles and miles.

4. It makes my butt look good. (Oh come on, it had to be said)

5. It makes me happier, healthier, more pleasant to be around and more motivated for the rest of my life. And this one is really probably the biggest reason I run.

...Now, if they only made shoes that would last longer. Anyone want to chip in for my next pair? These ones (purchased in January) have just about reached their limit...

Ciao,
kc

TODAY: 3 miles + impending 9 mile ride (split)
FRIDAY: 9 mile ride (split)
WEDNESDAY: 3 miles