every walk is a sort of crusade
Literally.
Noah’s Ark is coming to Kentucky. Brought to you by the developers of the Creation Museum, this massive theme park with a “full scale” ark will have “live animal shows” (whatever those are) and be situated next to a replica of the Tower of Babel. Fortunately, at the press conference where Governor Brashears announced the project, some reporters weren’t afraid to ask the tough questions.
I originally saw this in the NYT about a year ago, but an old coworker re-sent me the article recently because she said it reminded her of me (uh…thanks?) Turns out sad old Mr. Blob here is on the verge of extinction due to overfishing by trawlers, which is too bad, especially because the blobfish is drawn up with other fish and thrown away, not eaten.
Though it’s debatable if Blobfish looks that way because of its current plight or if we should just let things continue down their current path and put this fish out of its misery, overfishing is a problem. While out to dinner with some friends last week one of them pulled out their iPhone and pulled up the Seafood Watch App from the Monterey Bay Aquarium to help him decide what he was going to order. The app allows you to look up the best choices (in terms of ocean-friendly fish) in your area, good alternatives, and fish you should avoid. Andriod has similar Sustainable Fish and Overfished List apps, though they are a little less user-friendly. Seafood Watch also has a mobile website with an online pocket guide. Kind of cool. Save the blobfish.
Breakfast, as my father used to remind me every morning, is the most important meal of the day. It is also a meal I have yet to address in my (limited) food posts. This is probably because most mornings I am up at 4:45 and out the door by 5am to coach. No time to cook. What to do?
Meet the Pursuit of Healthfulness blog and this recipe, which is a step up from a Luna bar.
Ingredients:
1 container non-fat vanilla yogurt
1/4 C oats
cinnamon
vanilla
1 apple
1 T peanut butter
Directions:
Night before: Wash and dice the apple. Place in microwave-safe bowl and mix with sprinkle of cinnamon and dash of vanilla. Microwave for about 2 minutes, or until apple is at desired tenderness. Allow to cool slightly.
In another bowl, mix yogurt and oats. Stir in cooled apples. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Morning: Remove oats from refrigerator, stir in peanut butter and sprinkle with a bit more cinnamon. The peanut butter and oats give it some weight, it’s a nice pasty, filling combo. Two thumbs up.
Thanksigivng this year was fail on my part…I made one of the three dishes promised (pumpkin bread). Fortunately for me and the rest of my family, Thanksgiving was a home run for Joe, who basically cooked the whole feast by himself. But food aside, we did get to spend some time with extended family which was wonderful, and two friends from grad school joined us for dinner, which was just the icing on the non-existent squash pie I was tagged to bake.
Next year will be better, nowhere to go but up.
My colleague and I are a little less than 3 weeks out from our NASCAR half marathon in NC. We’ve both done a decent job of staying on course with training. Two weekends ago I did an 11.5 mile run, so this past weekend I was planning on going for a full 13. The Friday morning prior to my run one of the Masters swimmers (who also coaches triatheletes training for the Ironman) suggested that instead of a straight 13 mile run, break it up: 6.5 miles Saturday night, 6.5 miles Sunday morning (the day you would normally take off). Though probably more appropriate for individuals training for a full marathon as opposed to a half, it’s a good way to keep your mileage up while giving your body a little bit of a break.
So I took his advice and on Monday, my knees and shins felt just fine. Ready for the post-Thanksgiving dinner 13 miler coming up this weekend. Ug.
Sidenote: Congrats to Joe on breaking 4 hours in the Philly marathon!
This past month I stumbled upon a group of girls who, like me, are new to Kentucky and, also like me, have few to no friends. So by default we’ve started hanging out together and, I think to make things feel more official, someone decided it would be a good idea to start a Book* Club. (We don’t really read books…usually just drink. And sometimes read an article.)
For last week’s Book* Club meeting I decided it would be a great idea to make these Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies that I found on Orangette (thanks to Vanessa), adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. Changes I made included:
That’s pretty much it. I used cold butter and chilled the dough before baking. According to the reviews, these cookies are AH-MAY-ZING. The first batch came out…eh. OK. Really crunchy. Not awesome. The second batch I burned (Paul ate all of them anyway.) So, in a nutshell…fail.
I don’t know why they weren’t as delicious as everyone else seemed to think they were…but I’m pretty sure it was my fault. Plus, I forgot to bring them to Book* Club, so odds are I’ll be giving them another chance soon.
I got this recipe from an old coworker, who got it from another coworker, who got it from his mother. It came out gooey and heavy and good. (Let it sit for a few hours before you cut it.) I feel bad posting the whole recipe online for the world to see (the world being the one…yes, literally, I have one…subscriber to this blog), but I’m going to. Because things this good should be shared with the world. Just be sure to credit Mama G when you make it.
INGREDIENTS:
1&3/4 cups of flour GLAZE
1 tsp baking soda ½ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon 1 tablespoon milk
½ tsp salt 1/8 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp nutmeg 1/8 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger
¼ tsp ground cloves
½ cup margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
¾ cup pumpkin (approx. ½ of a 15 oz. can)
¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour 9×5 loaf pan. Combine dry ingredients. Cream margarine and sugar; blend in eggs. Add dry ingredients alternately with pumpkin, beginning & ending with dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan. After cooled, drizzle on glaze. Let stand 6 hrs. before slicing.
A conversation I had with one of the lifeguards at the pool who grew up in Eastern Kentucky on a farm:
Me: We went hiking this weekend and had to wear orange hats.
Guard: You went HIKING? This time of year? Do you have a deathwish?
Maybe my gut feeling wasn’t so far off. No more hiking during deer season.
According to the vet, it is not tick season. So it was weird that last night, as we were getting ready to go to bed, we found 5 on Spike.
I’ve never had to pull ticks off a dog (one of the perks of growing up in Southern California.) The only tick I’d ever really seen was in my sister’s ear. I thought it was a spider and the experience disturbed me deeply.
Some facts about ticks:
Some suggestions from friends and the internet on the best way to kill ticks included:
We figured a match to the dog’s head was probably not the best idea, we had no rubbing alcohol, and I couldn’t find my nail polish anywhere (probably still packed). We tried every cleaning product in the house (most of which were eco-friendly…probably didn’t help our cause), toilet bowl cleaner, and Paul’s cologne. Suckers WOULD NOT die. So we did our best with a pair of tweezers, but every single one left their disgusting front clampers in poor Spike. So gross.
Time to invest in tick medicine and rubbing alcohol.
Update: my coworker, who grew up in Eastern Kentucky, just told me a story about how she had a tick attach itself to her EYE, above and below. So when she opened her eye it would block her vision, she said her eyelashes would brush it. They used mineral oil to get the tick to let go.
Rambulatory Ambulatory 