Life, Recipes + Food, Travel

By kilax, October 9, 2018 6:45 am

We had such a fun weekend with Gina, Steve, and Luca. I felt like a kid waking up on Christmas each morning – so excited for the day ahead! I also very much felt like a mid 30s adult waking up each morning – exhausted from too little sleep. Ha! But more on that below…

FRIDAY!

Their flight from Dallas was delayed an hour, then baggage took a while due to the storms in Chicago, so we had a late first night. Like, dinner after 10:00 pm late, and going to bed past 1:00 am late, eek! We weren’t on a set schedule for the weekend, but man, those late nights EFF. ME. UP. For days. Worth it though (obviously).

Obvious Friday dinner choice

SATURDAY!

We chilled at the house a bit Saturday morning. Luca (well, everyone!) loved playing with the kittens and I’m glad they got to meet them when they are still small-ish, and super playful. It warmed my heart when they happily told me about the kittens sleeping with them at night, and later in the day, when Luca was excitedly telling Rachel story about them.

We had loose plans to spend Saturday in Madison and do local basic b*tch things on Sunday. Gina, Steve, and Luca have been to a few state capitals, and were interested in seeing the Madison Capitol. And we love going to Madison!

Our drive took us through Milwaukee, so naturally, we stopped at Holey Moley to take down a few donuts.

We (later) all discussed how we eat healthy the majority of the time when we’re apart, but when we’re together, it’s such a treat… that we have more treats. A LOT more treats than normal. Especially on a short visit like this! We’ll be more conscious of this in the future.

We got to Madison and walked a bit of the Farmers’ Market (I avoided the angry pepper man), and headed down State Street to window shop and look for a place for lunch. It was busy because of the Badgers vs Cornhuskers game, and it was fun to see the sea of red and black, and the interesting outfits, and behavior.

We ended up at Chen’s Dumpling House, which was DELICIOUS, but affected all of our stomachs, some immediately, and some later.

We got the scallion pancakes, vegetable dumplings, and red bean buns

So we tried to do a bit of shopping on the way back to the capitol building but I had to call it short to go use the bathroom. Eek.

But not before stopping to take some photos!

We walked around the capitol building a bit, seeing parts of a few floors, the observation deck, and inside the rotunda.

So… the blog post title. I had another “VEGAN CAKE!!!!!” moment this weekend. Some of our party (me and Luca) aren’t so great at inside voices. Or being quiet. And we were in some really echo-y spaces.

While we were walking down the stairs out of the museum, Luca was talking to Steven and Steven jokingly says to him “I see you still haven’t learned how to whisper.” Gina was behind them and heard it, then I came down the stairs behind her yelling “Twenty-five cent postcards! I should get one!” (I saw a sign about them in the museum). Gina started laughing and crying so hard she couldn’t talk. We had no idea what she was laughing about, because she was the only one who heard those two things. We all laughed too when she finally explained it, then enjoyed randomly yelling “Twenty-five cent postcards!” to each other all weekend. Ha ha.

After the capitol, we visited Rachel at the tailgate her company puts on to raise money for the American Family Children’s Hospital. Rachel’s told me about all the work that goes in to this event but I didn’t understand it until I saw it. Wow! Just wow. And they raised $62,844.29! I was so impressed, and proud of her.

I loved that she got to meet Gina, Steve, and Luca! I talk about them so much to each other!

We headed home after that. A pit stop for a bathroom break took us to an outlet mall where we found some killer deals at Bath & Body Works and a tool store. I am very proud of myself for NOT buying anything at Bath & Body Works.

We got home late and had another late dinner. Oops. We kept joking about it, saying we must be on “river time,” because we often eat late during our river trips!

Steven was inspired by our search for vegan ramen in Madison (I was too overwhelmed by the place we found to order there), and made an Asian soup. Then we had a very adult discussion over dinner about property taxes. We’re so fun!

SUNDAY!

We took it easy on Sunday, and focused on our list of basic fall b*tch activites. We ran in the local preserve while Steven and Luca watched The LEGO Ninjago Movie.

We got Starbucks on the way home from our run, and forgot to document it as one of our basic fall b*tch activities. Darn it.

Lunch was salad and leftover soup. Okay, and some tater tots. And a few of the “chicken” tenders we made for Luca. And let’s not forget those cookies bars we made Friday and munched on all weekend.

We hung out after lunch then went to Kroll’s Harvest Farm. We checked out the animals, got our cider (ugh, forgot a picture AGAIN!) then went through their corn maze. The corn maze was “horse” themed – the center part of it was designed as a horse head, and you read horse facts in the beginning. We were given a piece of paper with twelve spots on it to punch, then had to find the twelve stations inside – some just to punch the paper, and some with trivia based on what we read (there were two hole punches corresponding to the two answer options, and you picked one to use).

It was fun! And muddy. It had rained a lot before, and was sprinkling lightly during. But we found all the stations (in order!) and made it out, and all of our answers were right. We only googled one. Ha.

After that it was on to basic fall brah activities. Steve mentioned wanting to get some cheese curds and Steven said he HAD TO get them at the “Antique Cheese Store” (really, called the “Rustic Dairyland Antique Mall”). So we went there and they got their curds and were very happy.

Then we did something REALLY exciting. Went to Menards. Steve has never been, and Steven is there once or twice a week, and wanted Steve to experience it. I think Menards is great, but don’t always enjoy our trips there (because if I’m going or was sent, we are usually in the throes of a project), however, going with Gina, Steve, and Luca made it really fun and we were a bit silly and inappropriate. I wish they could come with us on every Menards trip!

We ordered pizza for dinner (I had this amazing burger instead),

and had a fire.

Luca and I played Blokus, and after he went to bed, we played 5 Second Rule, which resulted in lots of laughs (and uncontrollable laughing and crying for me). I love that we have serious conversations together, but also have extremely goofy moments. I remember both, but the goofy moments hold a special place in my heart. I was laughing so hard at times that my face hurt!

MONDAY!

We left the house at 6:00 am Monday for their flight. I wish we would have had more time together! We did so much in two days, and the days felt long because we did so much, but it also went by so fast, sad face. Luckily I see them again in December! Woo hoo!

Running + Training

By kilax, October 8, 2018 5:39 pm

Highlight of the Week: Running with Gina and Steve!

Monday | October 1, 2018: 10 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 61°/60°, Time: 1:37:53, Pace: 9:47 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good
Strength: boxes and dumbbells, , Felt: too hot and sweaty and tired
Tuesday | October 2, 2018: 4.5 m run (incl. hills x 8)
Loc: hood, Temp: 56°/58°, Time: 46:09, Pace: 10:15 avg, Difficulty: easy-ish, Felt: okay, but tired from Monday’s run
Wednesday | October 3, 2018: 4 m run
Loc: Chicago Lakefront Trail & Riverwalk, Temp: 79°/82°, Time: 37:47, Pace: 9:27 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Thursday | October 4, 2018: 7 m run
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 53°/53°, Time: 1:09:53, Pace: 9:59 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good, especially in the sun
Friday | October 5, 2018: teaching strength class + 504 yd swim + 8.5 m run
Strength: kettlebells and cones, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: FitNation, Time: 10:24, Pace: 2:04 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, annoyed I grabbed the wrong goggles
Loc: Redbox Loop, Temp: 58°/61°, Time: 1:25:23, Pace: 10:02 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Saturday | October 6, 2018: rest
Sunday | October 7, 2018: 5 m run (w/Gina & Steve)
Loc: VP Woods, Temp: 53°/55°, Time: 46:09, Pace: 9:13 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: great

Notes:

• When I left for my ten mile run Monday before teaching class I thought to myself “doesn’t this normally turn out bad – running ten miles then immediately teaching?” Yes, yes it does. Ha. I just don’t have enough time to run that, recover, then go teach (all after work). Actually, I thought I’d have more chill time at home but Data’s portrait came in the mail and I used that time to put it in a frame and admire it. Oops. Anyway, I ran hard, then did a challenging workout in a very humid room and felt okay, just weaker than I should have been! Will I make this mistake again? Yes, yes I will.
• Man, the newer Asics Gel Cumulses (19s, I don’t have 20s yet) don’t have the support I need anymore. Wah. I alternate between those and the Nimbuses because I don’t always need the support of the Nimbus, and the Cumuluses are cheaper, but I may just have to switch over to Nimbuses, completely.
• I ended up running on the Chicago Riverwalk by accident Wednesday. It was neat to run someplace “new” (despite all the foot traffic)!
• Thursday was one of those (rare for me) runs were I under-dressed and felt good running in the sun!
• I stupidly grabbed the wrong goggles from my swim bag Friday morning and decided to just go with it… and had to cut my swim short because they hurt my face so much. I won’t make that mistake again!
• Running in the local preserve with Gina and Steve on Sunday was such a treat. (Broken record—>) I rarely run with friends, and sharing a favorite place of mine with mi otra familia is special to me!

Link to Training Week 467

Life

By kilax, October 5, 2018 9:19 am

So maybe I jinxed myself by talking about nope ropes. We were in the basement last night, and Steven goes “what the f*ck?!” while looking at the wall, and I am looking at it, looking for whatever he is what the f*cking, and I don’t see anything.

“What is it?!” I ask.

“A nope rope!”

It was maybe a foot long

Ha. Ha ha ha. I love that he called it that, because the whole reason I polled you guys on knowing what it is is because he said no one does.

Fun fact: nope ropes are called danger noodles when they have poisonous venom (Steven said he likes danger noodle better), and apparently, they have many other names:

These Lucidchart vids crack me the hell up

I grabbed our small animal transport box, which is a shoebox with a bunch of holes punched in it.

Hey! Guess what? Snakes can get through holes!

I hurried upstairs to release him, but he was slithering out by the time I got to the door leading in to the garage. I had to turn the box so he wouldn’t drop on the floor (in to our house!) and hurry to open up the garage door and run outside in my socks and put him in the driveway. Ha. I went back in, put my shoes on, put him back in the box, then put him in the woods.

Fun times.

But really, snakes don’t bother me. Spiders don’t either. Just things that have TOO MANY LEGS. Like centipedes. Okay, and earworms do gross me out.

Here are some other animal pictures from yesterday:

Life

By kilax, October 4, 2018 6:18 am

• I often wonder what it would be like to have ONE day where everything I tried to pick up or place somewhere DIDN’T fall on the floor. One can dream.
• We ordered another camera (to place in the attic) and had it sitting out on project peninsula and look what it picked up – Starbuck!  – jumping up there to get the milk rings. Steven said she’d jump up and grab one, then come back later for another. Naughty, naughty.

• Steven was doing some work on the tile by the basement door and created this barrier to keep the cats off it. I’m shocked they didn’t climb it!

• And your final cat story – guess what happened to Apollo when he decided to keep me company during my bath? Yep, he ended up getting a bath. He didn’t freak out, but did want to run around the house shaking off the water (I didn’t let him – I towel dried him – I didn’t want him to get too cold since our AC is on as it was 85°F yesterday EYEROLL).

• Now Starbuck is curious about baths too. At one point she jumped up there on him. Surprisingly, that is NOT when he fell in.

• To answer yesterday’s question, this is a “nope rope” (below). Definitely google “funny animal names” for some laughs! (For some reason the polls turned themselves off on that post, so I added a second set.)

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 197

Health + Fitness, Life

By kilax, October 3, 2018 7:23 am

These are polls, so if you’re viewing in email you may have to click through to see them!

UPDATE – my blog randomly closed all the original polls, so I added second ones if you want to vote. UPDATED AGAIN, they shut themselves off again, so I give up!

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I’ve been thinking a lot about this last question. I lead very structured classes – my rhythm is predictable and I tell my class what we’re going to do and count the reps. Maybe some people want more spontaneity/surprise? “I know I said ten burpees but we’re doing fifteen!” <— Eww

Life

By kilax, October 2, 2018 6:18 am

Yay! Data’s portrait that snis ordered from dimdi* arrived a lot sooner than I expected! What a great Monday surprise. I love it and was so excited to hang it last night! Thank you, Snistina!

Dimdi based her painting on this photo of Data from when he was two or three, and added his bowtie and changed his tail, per our request.

After Data died, I was looking through his old photos and it became extremely apparent how much weight he’d lost and how unhealthy he was compared to when he was a young lad. Some weight loss is natural for older cats, but his was extreme. Seeing that made me feel better, like we made the right decision to say goodbye when we did. It also made me feel better when people commented on that too – that he didn’t look as healthy as he used to. We knew he was unhealthy, but it wasn’t so starkly obvious living with him declining a bit day by day, as it was seeing those photos. Anyway. I was hoping I wouldn’t talk about this as much in October, as it’s been four weeks, but here I am, still talking about it!!! I guess I need to.

I love having Data and Snow in the kitchen/dining room with us. That’s a good spot for Data, as he’d always jump up on project peninsula**, even though he wasn’t supposed to. Starbuck has become fond of counter surfing lately. Steven said she got on the counter and walked on to the cutting board while he was using it to make dinner last night. Oh, kitties. You little turds.

One last thing – Khali wants to show you her “I’m a lady” pose:

Just kidding. Don’t tell her I posted that here. She’s very proper and wouldn’t be happy.

*Do I still have to say stuff is not sponsored? This is not sponsored.
**That’s what we call that surface, because when we do projects, that’s where all the tools end up, sigh (I moved some to take that photo). Steven used to call it project island, but I pointed out it’s NOT an island, so it became project peninsula.

Life, Recipes + Food, Travel

By kilax, October 1, 2018 6:25 am

We had a fun and productive weekend! Yay!

FRIDAY!

On Friday we took a lovely nap after work with the babies,

then went on a walk in our local forest preserve.

We received these cute custom ornaments from my second cousin Denise on Friday! I put magnets on the back so I can enjoy them until we have a Christmas tree (and you know they are going to be on my fridge all year long).

Dinner was a  Boca “turkey” burger (are these new? or had I just not seen them before? I really like them!), while we watched the HORRIBLE movie, Rumor Has It. Horrible. So. Bad. Icky. I don’t really care for Jennifer Aniston, so that didn’t help.

SATURDAY!

I forced myself to sleep in Saturday (meaning, not getting up when my body wanted to at 4:00, and again at 5:00), since we had plans to go out that night. I thought I had all this time before teaching (and did things like write a blog post and buy our A Star is Born tickets), then had a blog issue and was all of a sudden scrambling to get out the door! Oops!

I taught Fitness Boxing then did my speedwork for the week. Yay for doing it on its own, and not making it part of my Sunday long run because I’m lazy!

We watched part of season 2 of The Good Place with lunch, then I organized and tidied up the house a bit.

In the evening we went to Milwaukee with Bobbi and John. We took them to one of our favorite restaurants, the Palomino Bar, which has vegan versions of many of the dishes. We got fried pickles to share, and I got the hot fried chicken. Bobbi and John really liked their dishes, and it made me happy they did! (I never know when I take someone to a place where I like the vegan food and they order meat dishes.)

Once we decided to go to the Palomino Bar earlier in the week, I had been thinking about how I was going to get a slice of their vegan cake. I was suspicious when I walked in Saturday and the dessert cooler wasn’t there. The waiter confirmed they no longer have their vegan cake (they’d have it brought in, but not sell enough before it went bad). NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Steven was sweet and looked up a local ice cream place that had vegan options, Babe’s Ice Cream, and lo and behold, when I walked in the door I saw THIS SIGN:

I got so excited, I jumped inside and said (okay, yelled) “VEGAN CAKE!!!” really loud and about gave the server a heart attack. I really freaked her out. And felt bad. But also, very happy they had vegan cake. Sorry, lady – I was genuinely excited.

So I had a small slice of cake, and part of an ice cream sandwich, and some of Steven’s ice cream. The cake wasn’t as good as what they had (brought-in) to the Palomino Bar, but it was nice to have that option.

After that we checked out the “Kwaktoberfest” at Cafe Hollander. It’s was a Belgian twist on Oktoberfest, so… can I say that I went to my first Oktoberfest, or not? Ha. Either way, we tried a few of the beers and hung out, and had a good time chatting and joking. At one point, I was laughing so hard at Bobbi and John’s Super Trooper 2 impersonation that my face hurt!

We had such a fun night out! It was great to catch up, and drink a little, and be a bit goofy. And I love going to Milwaukee. It’s so easy to get around, and park, etc. Although, it did rain the entire ride home, like the last time we went to Milwaukee with Bobbi and John!

SUNDAY!

Being up late + drinking = I needed to get a bit more sleep on Saturday night. I got just under 8 hours and woke up too late to do a long run, so did a quick ride on my bike, ran errands, ate lunch and finished season 2 of The Good Place with Steven, then hung up some fall decorations, and did a few tidying up chores before we went toaster oven shopping.

I added the pumpkin banner and lights. My snis helped me pick them out (we were in separate Targets at the same time)!

Steven added this paper towel roll, battery organizer, and bag holder to our linen closet! These things were just loose on the shelves in there before. Yay for more organized shelf space!

I was pretty pooped when we got home. I did some food prep, blog stuff, sous chefing, and Sunday evening chores and that was it. We started watching Phantom Thread, but ugh, not sure I am going to be able to finish that one! Too slow for me.

RANDOM CAT PICS!

Steven sent me this picture of the cats Saturday morning, saying “that squirrel thinks he’s their friend.”

What squirrel?

Oh my gosh. Yes, he does think that!

Bobbi gave us a stash of milk/Gatorade rings for the cats. Ha. They destroyed half of them in a day.

If I fits!

Running + Training

By kilax, September 30, 2018 5:25 pm

Highlight of the Week: Hmmmm. Actually doing a dedicated speed session, and not lazily making it part of a long run.

Monday | September 24, 2018: teaching strength class
Strength: boxes and dumbbells, Felt: so damn hot and sweaty
Tuesday | September 25, 2018: 5.5 m run (incl. hills x6)
Loc: hood, Temp: 64°/64°, Time: 57:33, Pace: 10:28 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: clunky
Wednesday | September 26, 2018: 3.5 m run
Loc: Chicago Lakefront Trail, Temp: 60°/63°, Time: 32:56, Pace: 9:25 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Thursday | September 27, 2018: 10 m run
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 47°/50°, Time: 1:45:33, Pace: 10:33 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but a bit sluggish
Friday | September 28, 2018: teaching strength class + one-on-one + 1,008 yd swim + 30 min walk (w/Steven)
Strength: boxes and dumbbells, Felt: good
Loc: FitNation, Time: 22:42, Pace: 2:15 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Saturday | September 29, 2018: teaching strength class + 6 m run (incl. 4×800)
Strength: kettlebells, core, and boxing, Felt: great
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 52°/55°, Time: 58:45, Pace: 9:47 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Sunday | September 30, 2018: 12 m ride
Indoor Ride Time: 50:43, Pace: 14.2 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good

Notes:

• For Monday’s strength class I created a movie inspired playlist and made a game out of guessing what movies the songs were from. I even had prizes! I can’t do that (prizes) all the time, but I think the class liked playing along!
• I took Monday off running and hoped I would feel energetic Tuesday, but ugh, I felt clunky and we had high humidity and dew point back, which didn’t help! Wah!
• Wednesday’s run felt so cool and great! Except for everything I wrote about here about getting yelled at. Sigh.
• On Saturday I had an even number of students for boxing which meant I could be a cheerleader instead of paired up with someone (and be less sore Sunday, ha). Yay!
• We had PERFECT weather Saturday for speedwork. Ahh, what a treat! I’m hoping we have some of that cool weather next weekend for our Texan guests to run in!
• I woke up too late Sunday (due to staying out late Saturday night) to do a long run and still get all my errands/chores done. Oops. Sigh. Kind of a low-motivation week, running-wise. I am wondering how many miles I’ll be able to get in October, with having plans every weekend. Eh, who cares, except me, and my sanity.
• Monthly recap! In September I ran 162.1 miles (24 runs, first month all year where all runs were solo), cycled 69 miles (5 rides inside), and swam 2,016 yards (2 swims). I did 5 speed sessions 3 hill sessions. My coldest run was 47°F and my warmest was 80°F. I taught 7 strength classes, 2 fitness boxing classes, and did 4 one-on-one sessions. I felt kind of bummed out for a lot of September, so I’m glad I worked out as much as I did – it helps me.

Link to Training Week 466

Life

By kilax, September 29, 2018 8:15 am

How is Monday October 1?!

Our October is going to be nutso, but in a good way. I’m excited for all our fun plans! Here’s what I’m looking forward to (in mostly chronological order):

• Putting all my fall decorations out
• Hanging up Data’s custom water color portrait
• Gina and family visiting (and doing fall and running activities!)
• Seeing A Star is Born
• The crazy hobby-horse half marathon (no, I haven’t practiced running with one!)
• Seeing my family at a wedding
• Anne and Terry visiting (and maybe going to the Dungeon of Doom?! AHH!!!)
• Christina and family visiting (and doing Halloween/fall activities and house projects!)
• Comfortable running temps
• Playing with the kittens and (most of) our guests meeting them for the first time!

What’s on YOUR list?!

Life

By kilax, September 28, 2018 7:53 am

Let’s do a random update on cat stuff!

• We’re trying out this grass litter – we wanted something better for the cats, and for the environment. So far, so good! (My goodness, there are SO many kinds of cat litters to choose from! I got grass because it seems most natural to what they’d use outside, I mean, besides filling their box with dirt.)

What a good model! As I was bringing the litter in for this pic I said to Khali “if I bring this in will you go model by it for me?!” Of course she will – cats have to check out anything “new” in a room!

• Khali is totally in the big sister groove and especially loves on Apollo (still haven’t caught them all cuddled up yet though – maybe when it gets colder). I’m so glad we already had the kittens around when we said goodbye to Data so she didn’t have to be super lonely.

• Apollo pants when he exercises really hard. You can listen to a short clip of it here (turn your speakers up!). I don’t think it’s entirely normal so we’ll keep an eye on that.
• Apollo looks like he has striped pants on from the right angle. Ha! GOSH THAT BIG BOTTOM. The kittens are growing so fast!

• In the photo above, Apollo is sitting on a brand new Halloween-themed cat house that Jen, Troy, and Declan brought over last night! Last year I got them a little cardboard house from Aldi and they loved it (we still have it out but they’ve torn it apart) so I know they are going to love this (and that I will keep it out until they destroy it, heh)!

• Christina ordered us a Data painting, similar to the one we have of Snow, and I can’t wait for it to come and put them both up!

• We’ve received so many thoughtful Data cards and gifts. These gestures make me feel better, and I love seeing little reminders of him around the house (and on my wrist and in my purse).

• This post is missing a picture of Starbuck! Here’s a cute “usie” Steven took of the two of them last week. Starbuck loves her daddy! She follows Steven around in the morning when he’s getting ready. It’s adorable.

• Updated to add – I learned today that kittens lose their teeth (after I found one). TMYK!