This week's workouts

So like I said in the last post, this week I picked back up my running with the goal to (hopefully) do the Marine Corps 10K at the end of October.

With the weather here, I've been waiting as late as possible in the day to go out. I really wish I was a morning person, because the humidity is generally lower then (at least it seems to be when I stumble out to walk River). But, I just can't motivate myself to do a true workout then. So, I have to settle for going out just before sunset, around 8 PM.

Here's what I did this week:
Monday: cross-train - 1 mile walk; 15:17:45; didn't record weather info.

Tuesday: skipped

Wednesday: skipped

Thursday: goal was 15 minutes run/walk - did 1.12 miles in 16:08:56; it was 80 degrees with 55% humidity when I finished. I'm doing 2 minutes running, 2 minutes walking which is why I ended up doing 16 minutes instead of 15. I felt OK during the first 3 sets, but then the run in the 4th set was very difficult and I was feeling quite winded. I definitely slowed down during the last walk. Overall, I have trouble with my breathing. I tend to get a tightness around my diaphragm and I often feel I can't get my breath.

Friday: cross train - 1 mile walk; 15:15:17; 73 degrees with 93% humidity (after a huge downpour about an hour before); I felt pretty good, except for my continuing breathing issues.

Saturday: a rest day according to the training plan, but I did walk nearly 3 miles around downtown DC visiting a bunch of museums with my good friend "Archer". That's not counting the walking we did in the museums. Now, it's not like we were speed walking or anything, but I think it counts for something!

Sunday (today): goal was a 1 mile run; I missed my turn and went a different way; ended up doing 1.18 miles in 16:12:105. It was only 69 degrees, but the humidity was high (I forgot to write it down). This time, I was most winded on the first run.

Since writing down what I'm doing in the blog makes me feel accountable and thus motivates me, here's the plan for the upcoming week:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: cross train
Tuesday, Thursday: 15-minute run
Saturday: rest day
Sunday: 1 mile

I will have to suck it up on Friday and work out in the morning because we have tentative plans for the afternoon/evening. I might up Sunday's workout to the same distance as whatever I manage Tuesday & Thursday. It seems silly for my "long" run to be shorter than what I do those days.

An Update

Alec and I visited some of my family over the weekend, and my cousin Belle was on my case (but in a nice way!) about not updating the blog. We've just had so much going on, and it's not that I haven't had anything to blog about, but I just haven't had the motivation.

We moved to the Washington, DC area at the end of April (can't believe it will be 2 months on Monday - time flies). As I think most everyone who reads this knows, Alec lost his job, so we've been staying with his folks while he looks for one. The new news is that now I'm job hunting to, as my contract was cut from full-time to as-needed (which has consisted of about 8 hours in the last week - not really enough to live on, even when living with family!). When it rains it pours, that's for sure.

We have done some fun stuff since we've been here, though, so I'll have some posts about that. No new recipes lately, though. I just haven't been feeling creative in the kitchen.

This week, my goal was to get back on the running bandwagon. I want to do the Marine Corps 10K in October, and though I haven't signed up, I do have a training plan laid out. I did my "assignment" for Monday (a 1-mile walk), then skipped Tuesday and Wednesday. I am making myself go out tonight, though, for a 15-minute workout. I'm doing Jeff Galloway's run/walk method, which I did informally for the Disney 1/2 marathon, but this time I'm actually following one of his training plans (or trying to anyway). Since I haven't done much running since Disney, I took his 10-K plan, which starts with 2 mile "long" runs and added on the first 5 weeks of his 5-K plan, to build up to the 2 miles. So, tonight will be a 10-15 minute run, with 2-minutes of walking/2 minutes of jogging. That should actually have me covering a little more than a mile, as I was able to walk my mile on Monday in a little over 15 minutes. Fortunately, my in-laws' neighborhood is walker/runner friendly. I have also been getting in at least a mile a day with River, but those are slow walks as she must stop to sniff every few feet. Still, we go about a half-mile in the morning and in the evening.

How Yesterday Turned Out

Yesterday ended on a much better note than it started. To continue the story:

2:34 pm: The Orkin man asks to unplug the extension cord he had to run in order to work in the back yard, because the outlet back there didn't work. I figure this means they must be done with the drilling. I am very happy.

2:35 pm: I resume watching High Noon. I enjoyed this movie, too. As with Midnight Bayou its been too long since I read the book to really compare them, but it was a good movie.

3:10 pm: They start drilling again!!!!!!

3:20 pm: Alec reminds me via IM that his photographer picked him up, so he is at work without a car and needs me to come get him.

3:36 pm: I load River up in the car and head out to get Alec

When we got home, the Orkin man was still there. He told us he was done in our yard, though so we could lock our gate.

Later, we headed out for dinner (we opted to actually eat at the sushi place rather than get take out). The place we like is very small, only 3 tables and about 7 seats at the sushi bar. They're all full when we get there, but a few people are finishing up. We decided to run over to Blockbuster to pick up a movie & come back.

At Blockbuster, they have Australia, which was my second choice for my birthday movie, so we got that. We also got Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler. We trade in our mailed movie so we get one free rental.

Back at the sushi restaurant, we have an awesome meal. Then, we went to Maggie Moos to get ice cream. After that, we headed home to relax and watch our movies. Australia was a great movie, but quite a bit more sad & emotional than I expected. So, even though it was almost 3 hours long, and it was close to midnight when we finished it, we decided to watch Bedtime Stories to cheer ourselves up. This was a very cute movie. Thus, my day ended at 2 am, and I was happy but tired!

This is so not the day I had planned . . .

So, my office is closed today. And even though I work from home, I don't work on days when the office is closed. Alec does have to work, so I was all set to enjoy a "me day." My plan for the day was:

Sleep In
Watch the two Nora Roberts movies I recorded recently
Read
Dinner with Alec as a belated birthday celebration (sushi or takeout sushi, we haven't decided)
Movie (P.S. I Love You) delivered from Blockbuster online (since there is nothing good in the theatre)

Here's what has really happened so far:
7:50 am - River wakes me up because she is hungry. No problem, I'll feed her, let her out & go back to sleep, just like I do on weekend mornings.

8:00 am - Get back in bed to go back to sleep.

8:10 am - Orkin calls from the call box at our gate because they're supposed to do some work here today. I don't know anything about that. Also, the feature that allows us to open the gate from the phone isn't enabled so I can't let them in. Which I wouldn't do anyway, since I did not call them and frankly I can't be sure it's actually Orkin so I'm not about to let them into the complex. I tell them to call the landlords.

8:20 am - Evidently Orkin got in touch with the landlords, and whatever they're doing involves making a whole lot of noise in the other half of our duplex. So much for sleeping in. I decide get up and make breakfast.

8:50 am - Another call from the gate - what's up with this? It's Alec's photographer. Alec said to meet him here. Alec's not home, though. I tell the photographer to park in the parking area outside the gate b/c I can't open the gate. I call Alec. He's on his way. Also, the gate does work now; they fixed it yesterday and Alec forgot to tell me.

9:00 am - Settle in with my coffee and cereal to watch the first movie Midnight Bayou. It's very good. I don't really remember the book, so I have no idea how well it follows that, but it's a good story. Also, it has Jerry O'Connell (so cute!) and Faye Dunaway (so awesome!).

11:00 am - Start the next movie, High Noon. Whatever Orkin is doing is getting progressively louder.

12:00 pm - The movie is getting suspenseful. There's a knock on the door. Orkin is evidently drilling holes in our foundation. They need to get in our backyard, but I can't remember the combination for the lock on our gate. I tell them to call the landlords. They get the combo, but I can't get the lock open. I let them come through the house. They get the lock open - must have been stuck since it hasn't been used all winter (it mainly gets opened when they come to mow the grass). While I am trying to open the gate, the landlord leaves a voicemail - Orkin is treating the building for termites and they may need to get in the yard - no kidding. The drilling makes it too loud to watch the movie anymore.

12:30 pm - Instead of watching the movie, I am playing on the Internet. It occurs to me that I haven't gotten an e-mail from Blockbuster saying they received the movie I returned, or that they shipped the next one in my queue (the aforementioned P.S. I Love You that is supposed to be my it's-my-birthday-I-get-to-pick-the-movie treat for tonight). I go on-line and check my account. It says that I still have the previous movie, which I mailed on Monday. I can report it and they'll send the next movie in my queue. I decided to wait & see what we end up renting from the store in case we can get it there. Luckily, we have another movie we haven't mailed back, so we'll get a free rental at the store.

1:42 pm - They are still drilling in my yard. I am going insane. I just heard them say "only 20 more holes to go."

Will they ever stop the drilling? Will I ever get to finish watching High Noon? Will the Blockbuster store have a movie I want to see?

Recipe of the week for 3/28 - Sweet & Spicy Chicken Tacos

Yet another version of Mexican chicken! Yes, I'm addicted to Mexican food. What can I say? It's normally pretty easy, plus it tastes good! I adapted this one from Prudence Pennywise. It's meant to be a slow-cooker recipe, but for whatever reason, I didn't get a head start on it, so I made it into a stove-top recipe. You can get the slow-cooker version here. I am sure you could do it with frozen chicken breasts, like I did for the Mexican Chicken I posted a while back.

Sweet & Spicy Chicken Tacos
adapted from Prudence Pennywise

Ingredients
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (14 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes, drained
1/4 c. brown sugar
Taco shells
Taco toppings (lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheese - whatever you like)

Directions
Put chicken breasts in a pot & fill with water until they're covered. Add about 1/2 t. red pepper flakes and the garlic cloves. I just peeled the garlic, then gave it a good whack to crush it a bit and tossed them in. You can add more of the red pepper flakes and/or garlic if you like things spicier. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken and let it cool for a bit.

Dump the water out of the pot. Add the tomatoes, brown sugar and 1/2 t. red pepper flakes. Cook over medium heat until bubbly.

While the tomato mixture heats up, shred the chicken. I usually just use my fingers, but you can do it with two forks.

When the tomato mixture gets bubbly, add the chicken and simmer for about 10 minutes.

While the chicken heats up, warm up your taco shells.

Fill the tacos, top as desired & enjoy!

The Photo
Here they are. I got those cool flat-bottomed taco shells that stand up on their own. I served the tacos with refried black beans (from Amy's Organic - yummy!).


The Verdict
I liked these a lot. I did not drain the tomatoes, but I think you should. The mixture was very liquid-y and made the taco shells too soft. Alec thought it was a little too sweet. I actually cut the brown sugar down from the original recipe because I know in the past he has not liked sweet/spicy dishes I've made. But, it was still a tad too sweet for him. Maybe next time I will just get some hot sauce so he can spice his tacos up, because I thought they were just fine!

I'm on Twitter

Last week, Alec convinced me to sign up for Twitter. I haven't "tweeted" because Alec is the only one following me. He usually knows what I'm up to.

If you have Twitter, and you want to follow me, look me up. Well, I think you can look me up. I tried to search for myself and I didn't find me (am I have an existential crisis?). I had my profile set so that I have to approve my "followers" because in the first two minutes I got two random followers and that's a little strange. So, I took that setting off and I still don't show up in the search results. Then I put the setting back on.

So, if you do want to follow me, I'm not really sure how you can go about doing that. Unless you just search for Alec (using his real name, of course) and then you'll see me as one of the people he's following. He actually does come up in the search results.

That is, of course, if you care that much about my life. It's really not that interesting.

I do, however, think it's fun to follow other people. I'm not really following anyone I actually know, except Alec. One friend came up when I searched using my e-mail address book. Other than that, so far I have: Martha Stewart; Elisabeth Hasslebeck & Sherri Shephard from "The View" and two bloggers I like, Pioneer Woman & Bakerella.

Recipe of the Week for 3/7: Quickest Weeknight Tomato & Basil Pasta

This is another one from the Prudence Pennywise blog. I don't really have anything else to say in the way of introductions, so I'll just get right to it.

Quickest Weeknight Tomato & Basil Pasta
from Prudence Pennywise

Ingredients
1/2 lb. whole grain angel hair pasta
1 T. butter
1 T. olive oil
1 T. minced fresh garlic
1 T. dried basil or 1/2 c. chopped fresh basil
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1/2 t. brown sugar
2 (14 oz.) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese (plus more for passing)

Directions
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain pasta in colander and let it rest there for now.

To the same cooking pot, add butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic & cook for 1 minute. Add dried basil (add fresh basil at the end), crushed red pepper flakes, brown sugar, salt & pepper. Stir in tomatoes with juices. Bring to a boil & simmer for 2 minutes. (Add fresh basil now if using.)

Add pasta back to pot and toss to coat. Stir in Parmesan. Pass more Parmesan at the table.

The Photo
There isn't one . . . I forgot . . . again

The Verdict
I think I halved this recipe for just Alec and me. I never measure my garlic, I just use a clove or two depending on the size. There's a strong possibility I didn't have any butter and just used all olive oil. I do remember very specifically that I used the low-sodium diced tomatoes and we both felt that it was too bland. So, either get the regular tomatoes or up the salt a little. I used dried basil because we didn't have any fresh. I'm sure it would be better with fresh basil!

Overall, I'd say this was an okay dish. I think I'll make it again, but add a touch more salt to the sauce and use fresh basil.

Recipe of the Week for 2/28 - Kay's Parmesan Crusted Chicken

This is another recipe from Kay, guest blogger on The Pioneer Woman Cooks! Though we didn't love her Stuffed Onions, I saw no reason to totally discount her recipes!


Kay's Parmesan Crusted Chicken
from Kay, guest blogger on The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

Ingredients
1/2 c. Hellman's mayonnaise
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 sun-dried tomatoes (jarred in oil)
1 t. Italian herbs
1 t. basil
cayenne pepper

for crumb topping:
2 T. breadcrumbs
Lawry's garlic salt
1 T. Parmesan
1/2 t. oregano

Directions
Preheat your oven to 425.

Place 1/2 c. of Hellman's Mayonnaise in a medium sized bowl. Add 1/4 c. of grated Parmesan cheese to the mayonnaise. Next, add a good pinch of cayenne to spice things up a little. You can add regular pepper if you don't care for cayenne. Next, add 1 t. frozen or dried Italian herbs or your favorite Italian seasoning and 1 t. dried or frozen basil. Finely mince two oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes and add it to the mayonnaise mixture. Stir until combined.

Now grab another bowl and measure 2 T. breadcrumbs, combine that with 1 T. Parmesan, 1 t. dried oregano, and a generous amount of Lawry's garlic salt. You can also use a little garlic powder wtih regular salt, of course.

Place 4 chicken breasts in an oven-proof dish and spread the mayonnaise mixture over the top generously. Next, cover them with the breadcrumb mixture. Place in a pre-heated oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until cooked through. (Longer cook times will be required for thicker pieces of chicken. Flattening thicker pieces of chicken with a tenderizer beforehand will help reduce over-all cook time.)

The Photo
This photo is not from the actual debut of this recipe. We've had it several times since then (see The Verdict) and this one was taken last week. That time, we had it with noddles tossed in garlic olive oil. The first couple of times, we had it with rice.

The Verdict
We really liked this one! In fact, we've had it twice since I originally tried it and it's on the menu for the upcoming week. It comes together very quickly - I usually have the mayo mixture and breadcrumbs ready to go before the oven even gets heated up.

The first time, I made it pretty much as directed. However, I am a Duke's Mayonnaise girl, so I used that. It was great, but the mayonnaise didn't seem that healthy.

The second time, I decided to try it with plain yogurt instead of mayo. It came out okay, but it was not as flavorful as with the mayo.

Last time, I decided to use Greek yogurt, which we've really enjoyed in a similar recipe, Yogurt Parmesan Chicken. When we sat down to eat it, though, it seemed a little sweet. Alec asked me what kind of yogurt I got. I said it was the plain Greek yogurt and I didn't understand why it was so sweet. Alec solved the mystery when he looked at the empty yogurt container and realized I had actually used honey yogurt! Oops!

Like I said, it's on the list for this week, and I really did buy the plain Greek yogurt so hopefully the 4th time will be the charm!

Wacky Weather

Keep in mind the following facts:

1) Today is March 28

2) Spring started 8 days ago

3) We live in Texas

And yet, this was our yard at 8 AM:


Then, this was our yard at 10 AM:
I realized this is nothing compared to what our friends & family in Colorado & Kansas experienced, I just think it's funny that it's still snowing in Texas in March.

Recipe of the Week for 2/14 - Mexican Chicken

Look at me, being diligent with the blogging. Does 2 days in a row count as diligence? I'm not sure . . .

Anyway, here's another recipe - this one came from one one Alec's Facebook friends. I think it was someone he knew in junior high & has reconnected with. Anyway, she shared this recipe and so Alec asked me to make it.

I adapted the ingredient list a little, and then cooked it based on another, similar recipe I make often.

Crock Pot Mexican Chicken
recipe inspired by Alec's friend

Ingredients
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, frozen
1 jar fruity salsa (we used a black bean & pomegranate salsa, I don't remember the name. Alec's friend suggested Newman's Own Pineapple)
1 can black beans, drained
1/2 a yellow onion, chopped
tortillas
sour cream

Directions
Combine all ingredients in the crock pot. Yes, it's okay that the chicken breasts are frozen! Cook on high 4-5 hours.

Shred the chicken. Serve in tortillas with sour cream.

The Photo
I can't find one. I guess I forgot.

The Verdict
This was a yummy twist on my usual method of making Mexican-style chicken in the crock pot. The salsa I used was quite spicy and thus the chicken was, too. But, we enjoyed it and I'd make it again!

A New Character

Someone keeps suggesting that I add a new character, named Francesa, to my blog. Apparently this person (who could it be?) feels that would be a good name for my mother-in-law who lives on the East Coast.

This is, of course, opposed to my mother-in-law who lives in the South. Yes, I have two mothers-in-law. Sometimes even I get confused.

I am always open to character name suggestions, so if you have one, feel free to leave a comment.

Recipe of the Week for 1/31 - Pioneer Woman's Ranch Style Chicken - Sorta

Where is this year going? If you know, please tell me! I can't believe I'm once again so far behind on my blogging. We were visiting M.K. and E last week and she was berating me (in a loving way, of course) for not writing very often. Apparently, I'm very popular among those who need a mental break. Raul once told me I should blog more often because he often checks the blog when he wants a break from work. He hasn't mentioned it lately, but then again he does have Facebook now, so maybe that occupies him.

Anyway, on to the recipe. This one comes from Ree, of Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. This is one of my favorite blogs (link on the right). The reason I used "sorta" in the title, is that as usual I made some changes to the recipe. The ironic thing about that is the very same week I made this, Ree wrote a post about making something exactly like someone else does, except for several modifications. I had to laugh since I had every intention of making her recipe the very next day, except with modifications.

Ranch Style Chicken
adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Turkey bacon (2 slices per chicken breast)
1/2 c. Honey
1/2 c. Mustard
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 t. Paprika
1/2 t. Salt
Smoked Cheddar cheese, shredded
Canola oil

Directions
Mix mustard , honey, lemon juice, paprika & salt and whisk until smooth. This will be the marinade for the chicken.

Rinse the chicken breasts & pat dry. Place each one between two sheets of wax paper and pound to 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick. Put the chicken & marinade in a Ziploc bag and refrigerate for 1-3 hours. (I know using bags to marinate isn't the most environmentally friendly technique, but I think it works best. Of course you can just put the chicken & marinade in a bowl & cover with plastic wrap.)

Just before the chicken is done marinading, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cook the bacon.

Heat the canola oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When it's hot, add 2-3 pieces of chicken. Cook 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side. Remove to a baking pan. Repeat until all the chicken is cooked.

After all the chicken is cooked, bake it in the oven for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven & top with bacon and shredded cheese. Return to oven & bake for 5 more minutes until cheese is melted. Serve immediately.

The Photo


The Verdict
We really liked this! I used a German-style mustard since it's what we had on hand. We also had some applewood smoked cheddar left over from the Stuffed Onions so I used that as the cheese. Pioneer Woman uses Dijon mustard, real bacon and sharp cheddar cheese. She also cooks the chicken in bacon grease. But other than that, it's exactly the same! ;-)

Disney Pictures on Shutterfly

I finally put our Disney pictures on Shutterfly. They've been on Facebook for a while so some people have seen them. If you don't know our Shutterfly site address, drop me an e-mail and I'll send it to you.

Recipe of the Week for 1/17 - Stuffed Onions

I'm sitting here watching one of my favorite cooking-related shows, BBC America's Last Restaurant Standing, so I thought I'd try to catch up on my cooking-related blogging.

This recipe comes from one of the regular guest bloggers on The Pioneer Woman Cooks!, Kay from the Netherlands. Having gotten over my childhood hatred of peppers, I've been wanting to make stuffed peppers. However, Alec doesn't like peppers. So, when I saw this recipe, I thought it might be a good compromise.

I changed the recipe a bit from the original, mainly because it calls for ground beef, and since I don't eat beef, I used ground turkey. I've listed the recipe as I made it, the original recipe can be found here: Stuffed Onions, by Kay.

Stuffed Onions
adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, guest blogger Kay

Ingredients
2 onions
1 clove garlic
1/2 pound ground turkey (half a package)
stale bread
1 Tbsp sweet chili sauce
1/3 c. grated cheese (we used an apple smoked cheddar. Kay also suggests Gouda.)
4 c. chicken broth
1 tsp. salt
pepper
nutmeg

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Season the turkey with salt, pepper, nutmeg and sweet chili sauce. Knead well.

Cut off the tops of the onions, peel them and cut a small slice off the bottoms so they won't fall over. Use a spoon to loosen the layers of the onion and scoop them out. Make sure you leave at least 1/3 inch of onion layer.

Roughly chop the onion you removed. Mince the garlic. Crumble up the stale bread.

Brown the turkey. Remove from the heat and drain it. Add some olive oil to the pan and cook the chopped onion for about 4 minutes, then add the garlic. Put the meat back in. Add the breadcrumbs. Stir to combine. Turn off the heat and add the grated cheese.

Set the onions in a baking dish and fill to the top with the meat mixture. Pour in the chicken broth until the onions are 1/3 to 1/2 covered in liquid. Loosely cover the dish with aluminum foil.

Bake onions for about 1 hour. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Take out the onions and spoon some of the broth over them. Put them back in the oven, uncovered for 20-30 more minutes, until the onions and topping are golden brown.

The Photo
Here's a photo of the dish. It looks a little lonely on the plate. I think we had rice with it, but I don't really remember. The Verdict
First of all, the chili sauce was a bit difficult to find, even in our fairly well stocked grocery store. We asked the lady who makes the sushi there (yes, our grocery store has a sushi bar, and yes, it's good!) and she directed us to an Asian market (who knew we had one!). A very nice lady at the Asian market recommended her favorite brand of chili sauce (Caravelle) and we bought a huge bottle, for about $3. She says it's good just to pour over chicken and as a dipping sauce. So, I'll be experimenting with other uses.

And, hopefully I'll find some good ones, because we didn't love this dish. Apparently, Alec doesn't really like onions, either (he might have mentioned that when I suggested stuffed onions as a dish). I do like onions, but this was a little much for me. I did really enjoy the filling and so I might try doing something else with that, maybe as a turkey burger.

A New Laptop!

I'm writing from my new Sony Vaio laptop. Why do I suddenly have a new laptop, you ask? Well, here's what happened:

I've been gone for over a week on a work trip, so this morning I started work as usual. My computer was running a little slowly, but that's nothing new. I worked on paperwork from the trip for most of the morning, plus helped out a couple of clients.

Around 12:45, I took my lunch break and watched TV for a bit.

Around 1:45, I headed back into my office. My computer was "asleep" so I shook the mouse to wake it up. It didn't, so I tried to reset the mouse. The computer still didn't wake up. So, I hit the spacebar a couple of times. It still didn't wake up.

So, I called Rick in. He asked me if I was working on anything that wasn't saved. I did have a Word document open, but I hadn't done much with it, and I figured I could remember what I had down so far. So, we decided to reboot the computer.

When it came back up, I had a black screen with some message about hard drive failure. We tried a few things and couldn't get it to come back.

Since I can't work without my computer, we headed out to shop for a new one. After hitting Circuit City, Sam's Club, Wal-Mart and Best Buy, we found a great deal at Office Depot.

I'm now the proud owner of a Sony Vaio laptop. And, it's pink.

Honestly, I didn't get it because it was pink. That's just an added bonus. When I called my office to check and see if the tech guys thought it was a good deal, and a good computer, they promised not to make fun of me for having a pink laptop, at least not to my face!

Of course, the bad part about the crash is all the stuff I may have lost. Fortunately, I recently saved most of our photos to CD's in a effort to free up some space on the old computer. I know the ones from our trip in October were still on there, but Rick has those on his computer, so we can transfer them. Our Thanksgiving, Christmas and Disney photos are still on our memory card, so I can download them again. (M.K. - I'll need to get your Disney photos from you again!) There's a ton of work stuff on the old hard drive, though, so we're going to try to see if we can find someone to get the info off it. But, I don't have much hope.

Recipe of the Week for 1/3 - Cheesy Cornbread Muffins

I've been really bad about keeping up with my blog over the last few weeks. I figured I'd bite the bullet and just get something posted. I actually still have recipes from 2008 to post, but I figure I'll just throw them in whenever and get on with 2009!

I have decided to continue my "one new recipe per week" resolution this year. I started off with some delicious muffins.

As my regular readers know, I love to entertain. I especially love to do it during the Christmas season. I enjoy decorating our house for the season, and it's nice when people other than Alec and I can appreciate it! But, it's always hard to find a good time during the season for a get-together since people have so many commitments. A few years ago, we hosted a gathering on the first Saturday in January. It worked out well, because I adhere to the tradition of leaving the decorations up until Epiphany on January 6th. Plus, it was nice to have one more festive occasion to top off the season.

This year, we planned to have a few friends over for a chili dinner & to help us polish off the Christmas cookies. It turned out only one could come, but we still had a nice evening hanging out and watching football!

I had copied this recipe for cornbread muffins from a magazine a few weeks before. I'm not sure what magazine it was though - I copied it while reading a stack of them in the bookstore! I'm fairly certain it was Paula Deen's magazine, though. The directions are very abbreviated because I wrote them down in the tiny notepad I keep in my purse and I didn't have much room.

Cheesy Cornbread Muffins
from Paula Deen's magazine, I think

Ingredients
1 (7.5 oz) box yellow cornbread mix
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. shredded Mexican cheese blend
1/4 c. milk
1/2 t. salt

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Grease a 6-cup muffin pan.

Combine all ingredients.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes.

The Photo
Here they are!

The Verdict
We loved these! They were way better than the chili (note to self: sometimes, it's best just to cook what you know works and not try to mess around). I've already made them again. I'll probably make them any time I want to serve cornbread - they are so much better than just plain cornbread!

Well, I Did It!

Just about the hardest thing I've ever done is over! We crossed the finish line at about 3 hours 48 minutes. Our chip time should be around 3 hours 27 minutes. We're on the bus back to the resort now for showers and naps. Then we'll head out to enjoy Epcot. Tomorrow the guys run the Full Marathon, so the girls will be out cheering them on!

3:20 AM: Nervous but Excited

I thought I'd write a couple of posts troughout the day as I have time, partly as a diary for myself later. So, it's 3:20 am. I didn't sleep great. So, I sincerely hope the energy of the other racers will help pump me up when I get to the course! I feel pretty nervous. I know I can do it, my head just needs to relay that to my stomach!

Big Day Tomorrow

Well, we're back at our hotel after an awesome day at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I'm off to bed. We have to be on the race bus by 3:45 AM! I hope tomorrow will go well and in about 12 hours you'll see my race results here.

mobile blogging?

I think I've figured out how to blog from my phone, so this is a test. I hope it works, so I can post my race results.