Saturday

Many of you know the story of Sherry Arnold. She was a woman. A runner. A teacher. A mother. A wife. She went for a run, and tragically never came back. Two men have been arrested, but unfortunately a life has been lost.

Beth over at Shut Up and Run is Sherry's cousin. She has organized a virtual run/walk/rollerblade/skate/DO SOMETHING in Sherry's memory for this coming Saturday. I encourage you to get out there and do something in Sherry's memory. Take tragedy and turn it into love and support aimed at those who have lost someone far too soon.

It's cheesy, but many days I mentally try to be an energy changer. Take bad energy and turn it into good. Like a magical machine that eats pollution and turns it into rainbows, only with energy coming from people. Please help to do just that on Saturday. It will never be enough, but it is something. Blogland is awesome. Let's show Sherry's family how it's done.

Memory

This is a rambly post because I'm sick and took Nyquil. Enjoy.

Shaz's post reminded me of a time when I went three days without power. Wasn't camping either. Hurricane Juan hit Halifax in the fall of 2003. It coincided with the death of my grandfather which was a difficult time for my whole family. There was no power anywhere for days. Things you don't think about: they had to ship his body out of town because there was no power at the morgue to keep him cold. Crazy. Never would have occurred to me to even think about. Morbid, but interesting? That storm destroyed my favourite park in Halifax (Point Pleasant Park). They opened the park to the public after it was safe, but before they cleared all of the pine trees. It looked like a giant had come in and stomped all of the trees down. I was so proud--the park was FULL of people just wanting to look at what mother nature had done. People got out from behind their computers and interacted with each other, completely in awe of what happened. Made me happy. Maybe it was a last lesson from my Poppy :)

Pic from above via: http://www.mcuniverse.com

Another pic showing all the trees just laying down from http://www.ec.gc.ca

That was followed by White Juan in Halifax, February 2004. We had a meter of snow fall in one dump. Whole city shut down. Was still living with my parents. We had power for most of it, but we ran out of booze and couldn't get out of the house. Stranded 4 days. With my parents. I moved out shortly after. Ha!

I have a great photo of me with the snow over my head, but can't find the album. I hope it turns up.

That's my memory for the day, brought to you by Nyquil!

Odds n Sods

There have been a lot of book posts lately. Here is what I have read so far this year. Note the total cheese/trashy theme. It gets me through.

1. Dead Beautiful *I stopped this one because it got too scary for me. Yes, it is a kids book
2. Life's Golden Ticket*This was a moral book with an interesting "life lesson." It was enjoyable, and rated G for adult audiences (nothing dirty really in this book)
3. First Love Cookie Club*This was a smutty read that I absolutely loved. A perfect love story.
4. Matched*I really enjoyed this. If you liked Hunger Games, you will like this. I'm waiting for Crossed to come in to the library (I'm on the wait list)
5. A trashy book that I can't remember the title. I'll see if I can dig it up. It was about some faery land.

Not bad. I'm averaging one light read per week. I think that's good. I need to read nonsense to keep me laughing.

***************now that my record keeping is out of the way*******************

I had a great visit with Hubs this weekend. We both had to work, but it was generally just awesome to be with him. And then I wrecked our last night (as per usual). We went for dinner with some friends. I had ordered lasagna with a Cesar salad.  I don't like Cesar salad. I took 2 bites, and traded with a friend for his house salad. 2 bites.  And then when we got home, I proceeded to be violently ill from every orifice in my body for 4 hours. It was AWFUL.

I'm an idiot. MEG-Cesar dressing is made from raw eggs. D'UH! I know that, and just didn't clue in. I googled what happened, and it looks like I was in anaphylactic shock, but without the breathing problems. I didn't know that could happen??? I'm okay, just feeling crappy today.

I will never eat lasagna again in the foreseeable future. Try puking stringy cheese. I knew you'd appreciate that visual....

Hubs has asked me to do this before, and now I will listen. I should really have a medic-alert bracelet. I carry an epi-pen, but I clearly am not responsible enough for knowing what my allergies are, and knowing what foods contain my allergens. If I was at home, I would have known immediately that the dressing wouldn't work. I have ingredient lists, and generally make my stuff from scratch anyway. I'm frustrated that it is getting harder and harder for me to eat out :(  I love cooking, but HATE the dishes afterwards. I'm going to have to find a new way to "treat" us if eating out is becoming a no-go.

I once tried giving a restaurant my list of allergens so I could be sure I wasn't getting something bad...they refused to serve me. I 100% understand their position. It has resulted in me never doing that again though...I love my eats!

Okay, enough of a bummer post. Enjoy your long runs and SuperBowl parties! Catch you on the flip side.

I am...

I am:

In the land of Timmies and Toonies
Sick and coughing a lot
Loving time with friends
Making huge progress on a work project
Excited for Vegas
Really tired (there is a lot of good going on!)

Happy weekend!

Late night picture show

Las Vegas Roll at Ka

Beach at Del Coronado

Working beside the hotel pool (fab)

Ran the San Diego sea wall (also fab)

Hiked a mountain in Elfin Forest. HOLY ENERGY in this place. Loved it.

Ran at Torrey Pines. My heart belongs there.

No wonder Californians are happier than the rest of the US population. They live in paradise!!

Will post more later. WIPED! Have a big week ahead again. Every day I'm shufflin'..*jams*

I'm back: Virtual Run

I'm back from an amazing trip which I will post all about later tonight.

For now, here is info about the virtual run/hike/move your body for Sherry Arnold

It will take place on Saturday, February 11. Let's change the world with good energy.

My Suppah!

As planned, I hit the gym for a 60 minute run. HUZZAH. 20 minutes in my heart was hammering. I clearly need a lot more training. I'm on it.

Tonight's supper was awesome. Here is my process in pictures with some notes along the way...

*NOTE* Pictures are missing. My EFFING PIECE OF CRAP phone has seemingly deleted all of my photos. I hate this phone so much....as you know. DO NOT buy a Driod 2. I regret not getting the iPhone. I tried to be "beyond-the-brand" and buy what they said was better. Eff that. You know I'm mad because I'm saying eff. Anyway, onto supper.




*NOTE 2* After a reset, my pictures came back. I still want an iPhone. This caused me to pour a second glass of wine. Could be worse...

Step 1: Cleaned my disaster of a kitchen and poured a glass of red.

Step 2: Grab some fresh garlic and ginger. Peel and grate it into a pan.

Step 3: Add some butter, and cook it a wee bit. Be careful not to burn it.

Step 4: Add some extra lean ground turkey. Cook it until it's brown and then add curry paste and light coconut milk.

Step 5: Once it simmers for a bit, and you're almost ready to serve, add a box of organic spinach (you didn't think I'd have no veggies, did you??). Spinach cooks down a LOT so you can load it up. 

Step 6: I served my curry concoction over top of Archer Farms whole grain medley. SO GOOD!

I ate it in my fave Asian-style bowl with chopsticks. I once heard that chopsticks are never made of metal because you shouldn't bring weaponry to the table (metal = weapons). As a result, I often eat using chopsticks. Whether it's true or not, it makes me happy. 

While I was cooking for me, I also whipped up a big batch of dog food. I've made Bear's food for her for almost 2 years now. Tonight's batch was wild caught Salmon (cheap, on sale), with some cheap imitation crab meat *don't usually use this but had less salmon than I thought*. With it she got brown rice, some of the same whole grains I had, spinach, broccoli, peas and will get some Greek yogurt thrown in there too. Dog eats better than I do most days. I know, it's bad.

SO, at the end of the night, these were my easy dishes.

I also had 3 big pots (one was Bear's). Two are done, Bear's is soaking. Blogging this took a whole lot more work than cooking it. NOW I am enjoying the second glass of wine. It's my cholesterol medicine. Right? :)

Have a good week, y'all. :)