Dominion

At Christmas, M and I opened our presents and found a game called, "No Thanks".  My brother told me that he was getting us a game that only takes 30 minutes and can be played with only two players. This game required three players, but the time estimate matched, so I thought nothing of the player discrepancy.

A few (read: about 4) weeks later, we brought the game to a friend's house and finally played. It was a lot of fun, so that nnight when I got home, I texted my brother:

Me: Just played about a dozen rounds of "No Thanks" with some friends. It was pretty fun! A good game if you want to socialize simultaneously.

Brother: Nice. I've never heard of it before. Is it a card game?

Me: You gave it to us for Christmas, dumby.

Brother: No Thanks? I gave you Dominion.

Me: No, we got No Thanks, with the cards and the chips! (and then I called him because we were clearly not on the same page)

Turned out that the place that had taken my brother's order had sent the wrong games to the wrong people. A few weeks later, we had Dominion and we also got to keep our copy of No Thanks (which really is quite fun)!

Last night, we finally decided to check out Dominion. But when you open the box, there are 5 decks of cards. Over 500 cards in the game. We tried to play last night, but I didn't realize how long it would take just to sort the cards! 

Then, we read through the rules and didn't understand a single word. Tonight, we try again.

Thanksgiving is Coming!

Thanksgiving might be my favorite holiday. I get to cook massive amounts of food and feed it to people! I LOVE the planning and prep that goes into making sure everything gets done at the same time, and at a specified time. I spend hours making shopping lists and detailed plans about when things need to go into the oven and when I need to start prepping, and what can be done the night before, and how long the turkey has to brine and, and, and, and.... I LOVE IT!!

 

But this year, there's only going to be four of us (likely). We'll take more, though! As a result of our smaller numbers, I don't think we're going to have enough mouths to warrant the roasting of a turkey. Instead, I am going to push for roasting cornish game hens. It will be like MINI-TURKEYS! Maybe we'll make mini-pies and mini-green bean cassarole, too.

Weekend-ist

Halloween Weekend came and went and I have a few pictures to show for it, but once again, I am not near where they are, so one of these days I'm going to have to do a GIANT picture post and there will by much rejoicing.

 

The rest will be a running-related entry (a warning to those who don't care:-))

 

I took most of last week off due to a nagging injury. I'm not sure what is going on, but I have a sharp pain on the side of my shin. I am hoping that it is not a stress fracture, but there are very few other things that it could be as it is too high/low to be a tendon related thing and it is a spot I can point to, not overall, general soreness. I am taking Motrin and icing it and hoping that does the trick.

 

I tried running Thursday, and my legs felt fine, but I saw all kinds of lightning in the distance and decided I'd rather take a rest day than get struck by lightning. So after 5 minutes, I was back on the couch watching The Office.

 

On Friday, I used a gift card I got for my birthday to go get a massage. It was a 30 minute massage and I asked the masseuse to focus on my legs. It felt like she dug her elbow right into my butt. I don't know how much good it did, but it was certainly relaxing! 

 

For my long run on Saturday, I met with my running group again. We did 12 miles at around 11:40 pace. Every time we stopped, it was harder to get going. My shin seemed ok, but then my knee started to bother me. So now I just feel like I'm falling apart at the seams! I'm icing my knee and shins, and trying to stay on top of the Motrin regimen. Hopefully, that will allow me to stay healthy enough to race at

 

The Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Half Marathon! In TWO WEEKS! I'm looking forward to this. Eager to get out of town for a few days, participate in a big race, go to the expo, stay on the River walk, and, hopefully, run my fastest Half Marathon yet! I'm thinking of tagging along with the 2:15 pace group and then, if I feel good, pushing the pace for the last 5k or so.

 

Tonight, I'm scheduled for a 6 miler. Since the time changed this weekend, it's going to get dark so early. I think I may have to either start my run early or head to the park where at least there will be a few hundred other people running next to me. Hopefully, my knee will feel just fine.

But Everything is SO BLURRY!

I used to LOVE going to the eye doctor. It was so great because you'd go into the office and see fuzz, then, when you came out with a new pair of contacts it was like, "There are LEAVES on the trees? And individual blades of grass?!" And all the little details of the world show up where there was just matte finish before. So I was looking forward to my appointment last Thursday.

 

I didn't figure my prescription had changed a whole lot, so I thought it would be a pretty easy-peasy visit and I'd leave with a small upgrade, or maybe none at all.

 

I wore my glasses for the day, since it's easier with the drops and everything else, and they gave me a pair of tester contacts to take home with me. I put the contacts in on Friday morning and the prescription is off. Not WAY off, but off enough that I notice it and have to squint at everything. The right contact is identical and the left contact is a -5.00 instead of -6.00! I'm not happy. Good thing I didn't order a box of them! They told me to wear them for the week and go back Friday for a fitting. When I go back on Friday, you better believe I'm not leaving without my -6.00s. I'm going CRAZY with this left side blur!

 

 

 

ION: I ran a half marathon on Sunday morning. I did it in 2:18.01. It's not my best time, but! I have excuses! (LOL, the last half marathon sucked because of the wind!) The course was crowded almost the whole race. The weather was HOT! And I spent all day Saturday walking and standing around at the car races. I haven't taken the splits off of my watch yet, but they're not pretty. The first half was WAY better than the second half (I think, due to the heat). The course was really boring: 3 loops on either side of a boulevard. On the street where I run almost every run I start from my house (anything 3-10 miles). So, home turf, but turns out that "Home Turf" is b.o.r.i.n.g.

 

We had my father in law and brother in law staying with us for the weekend and I'll have to post pictures from the car race. I think my FIL got some good ones.

I Think I Can, I Think I Can...

It's almost the weekend. Finally.

 

We have a really exciting weekend lined up. My father and brother-in-law are flying in on Friday night because this weekend, M's company, Modern Performance, is racing in an endurance race called 24 Hours of Lemons. The race takes place over 2 days at a track about 30-40 miles south of here. Each team has a car that they spent no more than $500 on, excluding brakes, tires, and safety gear. All of the employees at the company get to take a turn driving the race car. M's parents and sister came down last year and it was a blast, so his brother had to come this year to see what all the fuss is about. It will be fun to have them around for the weekend.

 

Sunday, I'm opting out of driving down to the race again and instead, I'm running the Houston Half on Sunday morning, still thinking of trying to stick with the 10:30s, but, depending on how my shins feel, it may be a little slower or faster than that. Sunday afternoon, my boss is hosting a bar-b-que for all of the people on her projects. I think it will be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to that as well. I imagine I'll be pretty sore and not interested in doing much other than sitting. Hopefully people can deal with that.

 

I have a bunch of pictures to upload and post one of these days - brownie baking, cinnamon roll baking, and I'm sure we'll get some pictures from the races this weekend.

 

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Dinner Tonight

I'm excited because dinner tonight is going to be "A Taste of Home"!

We're meeting the alumni representative assigned to our region for Chicago-style pizza, along with a dozen other alumni from my college. I always have a really good time talking with people who are familiar with the same places I am familiar with, and know some of the same people I know. Plus, Chicago-style pizza! Yum... so delicious!

 

I'm also trying this new thing to lose some weight. I thought just running my butt off would work, but so far, I have lost zero pounds. ZERO. Did I mention I ran 12 miles on Saturday? TWELVE. That should give me the right to eat whatever I want, right? Wrong. So, my plan is to really evaluate mid-meal whether I need more food or not. Yesterday, I had Pei Wei for lunch and normally I'd scarf that whole bowl of food down like I wasn't going to eat again for a week, and then be miserable for the rest of the day because I was too full. So instead, I stopped after a few minutes and evaluated how hungry I still was, took a few more bites, and put the rest in the refrigerator, knowing that if I got hungry again in the afternoon, I could go grab it. I didn't end up getting hungry, so I had the rest for lunch today! I think this is something I can stick to, since it doesn't mean I can't eat the things I love to eat, it just means I have to spread those big meals out over more time, and let my stomach shrink back up to the size it's supposed to be! *fingers crossed*

Randomize!

Had a really fun weekend this weekend, and it all started with a Friday off of work... *cue flashback music*

 

Thursday of last week, I got an e-mail from a friend asking me to make a batch of brownies for him because our other friend "wouldn't share" or some such nonsense. With that, the Brownie Throw Down was born. So I asked my mom for her recipe and set out to get the ingredients. I forgot to get chocolate chips, though, and ended up at CVS looking for an adequate substitute: viola! Hershey's Special Dark Kisses! Yum! Friday night, around 8, we gathered at my friend's new apartment (which is totally cute!) and each served our brownies. Hers were amazing with oreos and cream cheese in the frosting, oh, yum. I made a more traditional brownie with a fudge frosting. We ended up not voting because we were having too much fun just talking and the brownies were so different. We headed back home around 10:30 so I could get to bed, because the next morning was my...

 

12 mile run. I was really nervous about this run because I had had a really hard time running on Thursday night. I don't know what, exactly, was wrong, but I was supposed to run 6 miles and ended up walking after 2 because my shins hurt so bad. I stopped to stretch and managed to run 5 more minutes, but the pain just wouldn't go away. So that made me really nervous for my long run on Saturday. Shouldn't have worried, though, because my running partner and I ran our 12 miles at 11:15 pace, which is faster than our normal by about 15-30 seconds/mile!

 

In other running-related news: I'm strategizing for the races I have coming up. I have 2 half-marathons in 3 weeks: Houston Half this Sunday and San Antonio Rock-n-Roll Half on the 15th of November. I *really* want to race the SA Half, and get a good time, so I want to be decently rested and recovered for that one. So, I'm thinking of shooting for a 10:30 pace for the Houston Half, which is faster than normal  long run (see above), but not as fast as I raced the 10 miler last week, and not as fast as I'd like to race the SA Half. I'll plan to do speedwork Wednesday morning and basically train through this half marathon. Then, for San Antonio, I'll do the 14 miler the week before, but then skip speedwork on Wednesday morning and just do the 5 miles at training pace. Thursday night, I'll run my 7 miler easy, and then Friday, try to run the last 3 miles of the course in San Antonio. Saturday, rest up, hit the expo, figure out where to park and how to get to the start from our hotel, and find a nice Italian restaurant for lunch. Then I'm thinking of shooting for a 9:45 pace for the half marathon, giving me an overall goal of around 2:07, or a PR of 7 minutes. I think it's doable, and maybe I could even do it faster. My goal and target pace are pending the results of the half this weekend. If it goes well and I feel like I have energy at the end, I'll think about shooting for 9:30 pace, or even a 2 hr half!