Three Things Thursday

1. We have mice in our apartment. Ack! Ack ack ack! I can deal with mice, but I don't like them. A certain former roommate's cat brought a live mouse in as a gift once (or twice), and that was was exciting. A mouse also ran in the open door at the Barn and hung around the kitchen for awhile. Because I am from The Country, it always seems to fall on my shoulders to deal with the mice, while certain city girls run around shrieking. But this time, our landlord's son comes by once a day, removes the dead mice, and resets the traps. It's awesome. While I enjoy knowing that I can deal with mice, I really enjoy someone else having to do it.

Our mice are less cute

2. I can count on one hand the number of times I've worn a real bra during the month of March. Why would I want to encase my boobs in uncomfortable pieces of rigging and plastic and metal, when there are more comfortable options available?

Sports bras FTW!

3. In two months, I will be at the Wonderful Wizarding World of Harry Potter with my very favorite people in the world for a bachelorette party. I am so beyond excited about this trip that I can't even think about it. I'm guessing there will be lots of drinking (I'm bringing the Everclear), spellcasting (Jodi already called oculus reparo) and dirty Harry Potter jokes.

Here are some pictures from previous Better Lovers adventures:

Playing Wizard Staff at BLCT #3

L-Budz, Jodi Christ Superstar and I went to Hawaii once. It rained a lot.

You are what you drink party: Person on Safari, Bridesmaid, Teacher, & Groomsman- plus a Rasta photobomber

Halloween Scaryoke at Yen Wor Village: Tourist, Jared from Subway (those are "before" pants around E-bot's neck), Pirate, Person on a 5k Walk for Herpes

Just a typical book club meeting at the Beav. I believe Joderine is plugging her ears because a Creed song is playing on the jukebox.

Nicole & I went to Provo, UT for AmeriCorps training. This is at the science museum on BYU's campus. Nicole is pretending this lion is Aslan.

Can you see why I am so excited? Does anyone else have awesome trips planned in the near future?

First Trip to the Chiropractor

First off, this is my 300th post. Woo hoo!

As I've mentioned before, apparently my spine is curved and my pelvis is crooked, which is causing lower back pain on my right side. My GP recommended I go see Dr. Kane at Tahoe Chiropractic Clinic, in hopes that readjustment will solve that problem.

From here

Yesterday was my first appointment, and, as I've never been to the chiropractor before, I was really nervous. Luckily, it turns out that I had no reason to be. Dr. Kane and Tahoe Chiropractic Clinic are totally awesome!

The whole atmosphere of the office (located behind one of my favorite Lake Taco restaurants, Sprouts) was welcoming and calming, from the relaxing music to the two year old son of Dr. Kane running around to the fact that they have an office dog. Everyone was super friendly and my nervousness quickly dissipated.

Dr. Kane did a cursory examination and came to the same conclusion as Dr. Brooks. My pelvis is crooked, so my sacroiliac joint is not moving correctly, causing irritation in my sacroiliac ligaments.

Since I'm young and otherwise pretty healthy, Dr. Kane told me that this would hopefully be a pretty easy problem to fix, just a few of adjustments, spaced a week apart, with some "homework" for me to do between visits.

I agreed that this sounded like a reasonable course of action, and so Dr. Kane's assistant (who is also his wife- gotta love family businesses) prepared me for my first adjustment.

The nerves started creeping back in at this point, but they did an awesome job explaining what was going on/what was going to happen. First they prepped my back using some machine to do electrical stimulation and heating pads to make the area relaxed. It was a relaxing 15 or 20 minutes of me laying there while tiny shocks ran across my lower back...kind of like a prickly massage. Then it was time for my real adjustment.

I'm not even going to try to describe that part, as I can't really convey what exactly was going on. Basically, Dr. Kane twisted and contorted my hips, back and neck to try to get them in proper alignment. It didn't hurt at all (which I had worried about), and in fact, it made my neck feel a lot better (I didn't even realize how much tension I'd been holding in my neck!). I was surprised by how short the whole procedure was.

Dr. Kane warned me that I might feel kind of sore in the next couple of days, but hopefully I'd start feeling more "even" and "balanced" after that. I also got my "homework" sheet, which is just a bunch of pretty easy, lower back-focused yoga moves, like cat-cow, bridge, twists, etc.

I go back next week to check my alignment and see if I need any more adjustments.

All in all, it was an excellent first ever trip to the chiropractor. If you are in the Tahoe area, I seriously recommend Dr. Kane at Tahoe Chiropractic Clinic. He was great, and everyone there made my first experience at the chiropractor a great one.

Spring is just around the corner, right....?

I think Spring is finally coming!

According to my favorite weather websites, it's supposed to be in the 60s (Maybe even 70s!) by Thursday! Quite a change from last week.

In honor of this most welcome of season changes, I've started preparing for Spring.

Yesterday, I wore my Chuck Taylors instead of my Sorrels or my Simple boots. When I lived in the Ham, the Chucks were my winter shoes.

Today, I wore a skirt to work without leggings or fleece lined tights underneath. Sure, I'm still wearing knee socks and boots, but there is at least a few inches of skin exposed!

I have also been looking for a good deal on a Stand Up Paddle Board. I've actually never even gone stand up paddle boarding, but it looks like something I'd really enjoy.

From here.

Last night I went on what I hope was my last treadmill run in a long time. I did about three miles on the treadmill than 40 minutes on the elliptical. As sad as I am that I'm not running the American River Parkway Half Marathon, limiting my running to less than 10 miles per week has really made my knee feel better. Hopefully, getting my curved spine/crooked pelvis issues fixed might have some effect on my sore knee, so maybe I'll be able to do a half marathon in the fall. Maybe this one? I will have trained At Altitude.

This will change your life.

I know I'm a little late to the game with this one, but now that I have a blender, I am obsessed with Frozen Banana "Ice Cream".

I love it. I want to eat it constantly. I sit at work, and wish I had a blender here. Here's my favorite way to do it"

1 frozen banana (I peel and cut my banana into 1 inch chunks before I freeze it)

1/4 c almond milk

1 tsp agave nectar

4 or 5 frozen mango chunks

Put all ingredients into blender, and blend until ice cream consistency. Enjoy!

P.S. Once Jodi Christ Superstar thought that Gwen Stefani was spelling "bananas" wrong in this song. She was worried about children who would grow up not knowing how to spell "bananas". Then Fergie came along, and a whole generation of children don't know how to spell "tasty".

I'm not very responsible...

So I've had lower back pain on and off for like...5+ years. Mostly I just ignore it, and occasionally complain. Sometimes I stick Salonpas on there, and I used to take lots and lots of ibuprofen (until I realized that that's probably not the best idea). Yoga helps, not stretching makes it worse...being active helps, driving long distances is the worst thing ever for it, etc. etc.

I've made a couple of attempts to get it checked out- one Dr. told me to take lots of ibuprofen, the other told me to go to an orthopedist (which I totally didn't do -my bad- because the it got better for awhile), but I'd pretty much kept it under control with stretching, yoga, and ignoring it.

However, it's been bugging me for awhile lately, and I actually have good insurance (yay job!), so I decided that if there's something horribly wrong, like a tumor or spine fusion or bone spurs (all suggested by the first Dr.) now might be a good time to find that out. So I made an appointment with the one GP that my insurance covers in the wilderness.

Luckily, he's awesome. He examined me, took some x-rays, and he determined....dun dun dun...that my spine is curved, and my pelvis is crooked, which is making my back hurt, and possibly my knee.

My prescription- chiropractor and yoga for 6 weeks, then he'll recheck me. If I'm still having pain, he'll prescribe physical therapy (hopefully this will involve massages!)

As much as it sucks that my spine and pelvis are all jacked up, at least this is a diagnosis. I am so glad that it's not mystery pain, and it's something that can be fixed by a chiropractor or with PT. I don't even have to stop being active! I'm so thankful for my good fortune in this regard!

But here's the really strange part...I used to have really really bad Exercise Induced Asthma. At the end of high school-beginning of college, I "outgrew" it and didn't need my 4 inhalers anymore. My respiratory capacity has never been that great compared to how much I work out, but I figured that was just how my body worked.

During my intake, my doctor noticed that I'd had asthma, and that I wasn't being treated. He asked me some questions (Do I get out of breath easily? Yes. Do I cough a lot? Yes.), and said that as long as I was there, he wanted to evaluate me for asthma.

I had to reacquaint myself my nemesis the Peak Flow Meter to measure my peak expiratory flow and some other stuff. While my peak flow is better than what it was when I first was diagnosed with asthma, it is still only 57% of what it should be.

The doctor explained that my asthma had probably just gone dormant when I moved away to college, because I'd moved away from whatever irritants were making it really bad, but it's been underlying my shortness of breath this whole time. He also said that leaving asthma untreated for years and years and years could contribute to making me more susceptible to lung problems when I'm older.

So I left with a prescription for an inhaler. I'll use it once or twice a day for the next six weeks, and he'll reevaluate and see if the inhaler has helped when I go back to get my back checked.

While I'm a little bummed that I did not, in fact, outgrow my asthma...I am excited to see how starting an inhaler might help me. There have definitely been some times recently (when I went biking last and this weekend on the mountain) where I was way more out of breath than I felt I should be for how much cardio I do.

To recap: I'm bummed that I have a curved spine and asthma...but I'm excited to get them fixed and not have them nagging at me. Plus, insurance covered massages! What's not to love?

Sooooo tired

My whole body is exhausted.

Dan and a couple of other friends came up this weekend and we enjoyed the feet upon feet of snow at Northstar and Kirkwood.

Powder snowboarding is hard. My right knee and calf muscle hurt. My left elbow hurts. My shoulders are sore. My quads are sore. Everything is sore.

But it was so much fun.

I'll write a longer post when I'm not about to fall asleep into my Bitch Creek.

Three Things Thursday

It's snowed more than 2 feet in two days. Again.

1. There is a giant cornice of icy death hanging from my house, and it scares me. I am going to make Dan take care of it when he gets here tomorrow. If he gets here. There is a serious blizzard right now. I tried to drive the three miles to Katie's house, and I didn't even make it to the end of my street. Scary!

2. My car survived its first slide into a snowbank. Way to go, Strawberry! I also managed to put my chains on with only some "help" from a drunk guy who took way longer to get his chain on than I did. We had our work retreat at my boss's house out in the boonies, and getting there was quite an adventure. I rewarded myself with lots of delicious cookies and a brownie.

3. I now own two snowboards, a set of bindings, and a pair of boots. Unfortunately, the boots are too small and the bindings are so old that they need an adaptor before I can put them on either of my snowboards. Guess I am renting again this weekend!

We had a snow day at work today, because of the impending snow doom, so I headed into work at about 10, picked up some stuff and went to the gym before the snow got too crazy. I spun for 70 minutes then lifted. I lifted after I ran on Tuesday, too, which is good, because with the craziness at work lately, I'd kind of fallen out of the habit. It's way easier to just get in a run or a spin class and ignore strength training when I have limited time. But now I'm back on the strength training wagon!

At this rate, I won't be able to ride a bike in Tahoe until July, but at least I'll be strong!

You Know You Live in a Ski Town When...

On Sunday I rented cross country skis for my little jaunt through the meadow, and on Monday morning I attempted to return them. The shop was closed.

Not the most flattering photo, but a nice view of the onsie.

I figured that the bro working the morning shift had probably just slept in, so I returned at noon to try again. Still not open.

Katie did awesome her first time ever cross country skiing!

Hmmm...I know they're supposed to be open today. But, if they're not, two days of skiing for the price of one! I gave them a call at 4:30...still no one there. So I g-chatted Katie, and we made plans: cross country skiing after work.

We headed to Camp Rich with just a couple of hours of daylight (don't worry, we packed our headlamps just in case) and set off along Lake Taco. Skiing along the lake is always gorgeous, but yesterday evening was the most beautiful I have ever seen it. Usually Lake Taco fades from aqua to dark blue, but last night, between the clouds and the sunset and the patches of blue sky, the lake was a soft blue with patches of gold.

It was gorgeous, and there were no other people around, and basically everything I love about cross country skiing wrapped up in one perfect day.

Poor quality cell phone pics still capture some of the beauty of the evening.

After two days of xc skiing, I am sore! My core is so tired that I kind of just want to flop on the floor of my office and work from there. My boss is gone today....

I called the rental place again this morning, and they were finally open. When I went to return the skis, this is the conversation I had.

Lynn: I tried to return these yesterday, but you guys weren't open.

Bro: Powder day, brah. I was shredding.

Ah, life in a ski town.

And I'll leave you with one more picture...Katie and I living the Tahoe Fabulous Lifestyle, in the Lakeland Village hot tub with a bottle of champagne from the Gross Out:

(Not pictured: 2 German dudes, one in a fuzzy Viking helmet that were also hot tub poaching that night.)

My life is based around one thing...

Snow.

I guess that's what I get for moving to 6,500 feet.

In honor of the snow that is still falling from the sky, here are some pictures from last weekend's snowboarding trip:

Carving down the mountain, like the bad ass I am.

My mittens are huge and my goggles have skulls on them, but hey, they were on sale.

We were skiing/riding Heavenly that day. If you look closely at the background, you'll notice that it's the desert. Nothing like being on a snow-covered mountain, looking down, and seeing the desert.

Dan and Carl have awkward roommate bonding time.

Dan is very safety-conscious with his full-face helmet and body armor. He is also kind of creepy.

Living the dream

Yesterday, Katie and I were hanging out at the Brewery, and we met a girl who had gone to UCSB for undergrad and had a degree in environmental studies. She initially approached me to offer us their leftover pizza and compliment my onsie:

We got to talking, and she told me that I'm "living the perfect life."

I never really thought about how amazing that would be to hear. But it's pretty true. I mean, I wish Dan was closer, and that I had less student debt, and less boring hair, but, it's true. My life is pretty awesome.

Case in point- my weekend:

Saturday

I had planned to take my new (used) snowboard and my new (used) bindings out to Sierra on Saturday. Unfortunately, I was missing a part I needed to put them together, and woke up Saturday morning to snow and wind.

The weather plus the added expense of renting plus chain controls on Hwy 50 pretty much killed my desire to get up and drive to Sierra, so I crawled back into bed and caught up on some much needed sleep. I've already written about my adventures in snow running, but the planned run was a perfect was to enjoy the sunshine.

I ate about half a jar of peanut butter, drank a bunch of hot water with ginger, and went to sleep early.

Sunday

Since I'd missed out on a great day of snowboarding on Saturday, I was determined to get up and go on Sunday morning. Until I saw the weather...even harder snow and more wind. I decided to check two of my favorite websites noaa.gov and weather.com to see if it was going to clear up this afternoon. Definitely not, said the internet.

Oh, well. I decided just to enjoy my coffee, dig my car out of two feet of snow (Happy 1st day of Spring!) and maybe do some living room yoga. I sat on the floor, watching the snow fall, and drinking my coffee. A couple hours passed before I finally dragged myself up to shovel out my car. I noticed that Katie had texted me, to see if I wanted to go play outside/go cross country skiing. Absolutely!

I love going places you can only go on skis or snowshoes.

So we headed to Sierra Ski & Cycle Works, rented some xc skis and we were off to Camp Rich for some beautiful gliding along Lake Taco...Or not. Hwy 50 was bumper to bumper completely stopped for miles. There went the plan to go to Camp Rich. Luckily, my neighborhood is close to a meadow that's great for easy xc skiing, so we ditched off of 50 as soon as we could (which involved Katie asking the cars ahead of us to move over so we could escape on the shoulder!) and headed to Al Tahoe.

It was Katie's first time cross country skiing, so the trek through the neighborhood to the meadow was a perfect learning opportunity (plowed roads = groomed trails, almost). We made it to the meadow, and had a great time in basically solitude. After skiing, beers were drank, pizza was eaten, and hot tubs were poached (successfully!).

All in all, it was a pretty much perfect Tahoe weekend.

Snow running

I went for a run in the snow today. Actually I went for two.

The first was unintended, especially since it was a sprint through 14" of fresh powder wearing rain boots with no socks, yoga capris and my BL sweatshirt.

Luckily, I'm almost always wearing a sports bra.

Meira, the world's cutest puppy, made a break for it through a hole in the fence when I let her out to pee this morning.

She's so regal.

Since I still haven't gotten a charger for my camera, I've been a little Photo Booth-obsessed.

So I had to go sprinting after her through drifts and piles of snow. She, of course, couldn't stick to the plowed roads, because what's more fun for a dog than porpoise-ing through the snow?

Had I not been sprinting after my roommate's dog in entirely inappropriate gear, it would have been a lovely run along the south shore of Lake Taco. I finally caught up and yelled "Meira! Stay!" in my most serious voice and she actually did.

She did not, however, want to be done with her adventure. Since I hadn't thought to grab her leash when I dashed out after her, her stubbornness meant that I ended up carrying her pretty much the whole way back to the house.

She was not happy about me cutting her adventure short. Seriously. She went and lay down under the coffee table and where she alternated whining and glaring at me.

After a couple of hours, it stopped snowing, and I decided to break out the off-brand yak trax and go for a little snow run. When Meira realized that she got to go along as well, there was a lot of pure puppy joy.

I started the run wearing yak trax, light hikers, my tallest ski socks, running tights that almost reached the top of my socks, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, my running jacket, a fleece-lined ski hat with a puff ball, and the liners from my snowboarding mittens.

Bundled up, we headed off. It was an exciting run for Meira, with lots of things to smell and dogs and people to greet. My fake yak trax fell off a few times at first, but after I got them situated they worked super well. There were only a couple of times where I felt unsteady on the ice and snow.

It was fun to trudge along at puppy-sniffing speeds with no music, enjoying the sun and the view and chatting with people in my neighborhood.

We did a loop of just over 2.5 miles, and there were no falls, Meira did not yank my arm out of the socket with her exuberance, and all of the dogs we met were friendly. I think it was a very successful first snow run.

Important question

I just got a very exciting email...the email that informed me that my REI dividend is available!

But what should I buy?

I need a longer sleeping bag. Note: if you are a 5'11" woman, don't buy an REI women's specific sleeping bag. It will be too short. Even if the sales guy tries to convince that it's not. Maybe this one instead?

I would also love a Jet Boil for camping this summer.

Maybe I should own more than one pair of running tights...

I would love to cross country ski more this/next winter. Preferably in the onsie.

I needed a face gaiter, like, yesterday.

I used to have a really cool adventure hat, but I lost it at a BL camping trip.

It's just so hard to decide! What are you going to get with your REI dividend?

Free Guinness Earmuffs!

I got off work a little early yesterday, so I got to hit the gym a little early and watch UCSB get pummeled from the elliptical before spin class. I ended up doing 45 minutes on the elliptical and then 90 minutes of spinning.

I was super hungry by the time I left the gym, but instead of eating like a responsible human, I instead picked up Katie and we headed to MacDuff's for some St. Patrick's Day fun.

I hadn't gone out for St. Patrick's Day in a couple of years. Not since I'd been in B-ham with these crazies:

We must have had some pretty awesome parking karma, because we got a spot right away. It was packed inside, so we had a beer while we waited for a table to open up.

Pint of strong beer + no dinner + more than 2 hours of cardio = that one beer hit me pretty hard.

Luckily, we were finally able to flag down a waiter and order some food. I had some delicious veggie pizza, french fries, and more beer. Some of Katie's coworkers, and our intern Carissa showed up, and a good time was had by all. And more beer was had. Of course, in honor of the holiday, we also had Irish Car Bombs. And I got free Guinness earmuffs!

I had a lovely (if cold) walk back to my car in MacDuff's parking lot this morning. Luckily for my flat-clad feet, it didn't start snowing until about 2 pm this afternoon. It's snowed a good couple of inches already.

In exciting, snow-related news- my snowboard came! I now have a board and bindings, I just need boots and to put all of them together. Last weekend's snowboarding outing was pretty frustrating by day two. Learning something new is so hard! I might pay to take a lesson this weekend.

My knees were really bugging me this weekend, and I think that I just have to admit that my knees can't handle half marathon training right now. Goodbye, American River Half. I think that part of the problem is that my running is pretty much exclusively on the treadmill right now. Maybe I'll try again this summer when I can run on a more forgiving surface, like trails or the beach.

So I'm going to stick with the more manageable distances in tri-training, snowboarding, and dreaming about bike season.

Expensive dreaming.

I want to eat these forever

I was thinking the other day about how much I miss PCC in Seattle. Especially their bulk section and deli.

My two favorite things in the bulk section at PCC are wasabi peas

and curried cashews

Picture from here.

My friends Katie, Carin, Nira and I had planned a girls' evening for last night, and I was in charge of bringing tomato soup. In order to procure the best soup possible, I decided to forgo my usual trip to the Gross Out and head to the more upscale Raley's.

I even went to the good Raley's at the Y.(Sidenote: if you are ever in Tahoe and are confused because people are referring to the "Y", don't worry. You're not crazy the "Y" is not actually a Y, and is, in fact, just a normal "T" intersection.) This Raley's has a pretty good bulk section, and, lo and behold, they even had Curried Cashews!

I was so excited...then I noticed that the Curried Cashews were $11.99 a pound, while plain cashews were $5.99 a pound. Hmmm...

I bought the plain cashews, and searched for a recipe. I couldn't find one that I thought sounded exactly right, so I combined several, and here's what I came up with:

Roasted Curry Cashews:

2 cups cashews (I used plain ones, but if you buy roasted & salted ones, just skip Step 1)

2-3 tbsp curry powder, depending how strong you want them

3ish tbsp olive oil

1.5 tsp sea salt

dash cayenne pepper

1. Heat oven to 350. Roast cashew pieces in a tray for 10 - 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Watch carefully because they can burn.

2. While cashews are roasting, mix olive oil, curry powder, salt, and cayenne pepper. I heated the mixture in the microwave for about 90 seconds, but you could also do this in a pot on the stove. This makes the mixture a little easier to pour.

3. Take the roasted cashews out of the oven, pour the curry mixture over the cashews, and mix so the nuts are pretty evenly coated. I did this in the pan I was using for roasting, because it had sides, but if you're using a cookie sheet, you might want to do this in a bowl so the nuts don't escape. Spread the cashews around so they're in a pretty thin layer.

4. Return the cashews to the 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. The cashews should look brown and kind of shiny when they're done.

Let cool to the point that you can eat them without burning your mouth and enjoy!

I'm excited to try this recipe with other spices, like cracked pepper or rosemary or maybe even cinnamon and sugar.

Is it spring where you are yet? I though spring was maybe beginning to arrive, but we got about 6 inches of snow in the last 10 hours. This is what it looks like in my neighborhood right now:

I'm back!

The 6th Annual Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival was a huge success!

The new venue was awesome, with great sound, a huge screen and a swanky atmosphere. We almost doubled the number of attendees from previous years, and we more than doubled the income from last year's raffle with the silent auction this year.

People seemed to really enjoy the films, and even at ticket sales, the most bottle-necked area, people were smiling and talking and having a good time.

I deem it a success!

Between the Film Fest on Friday, snowboarding two days this weekend, and daylight savings time, I was quite the zombie on Monday. Spending the entire day processing money from the Film Festival didn't exactly help.

I slept about ten hours last night, and I could have definitely kept sleeping this morning, but I am slowly returning to the land of the living.

I don't know why I made the decision to have a non-caffeinated beverage this morning, but that was dumb. So I am going to wander off to find some coffee before I fall asleep on this stack of thank you cards.

I might hurl

Slightly more than 24 hours until the 6th Annual Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival.

Ack!

Ack! Ack! Ack!

Everyone out there who has planned an event knows how I am feeling.

Hopefully, after tomorrow, life will slow down a little, and I can get back to my normal schedule, including working out and blogging. I did manage to fit in a 3.5 mile run yesterday, which I desperately needed.

Dan and another friend are coming up tomorrow, so when I finally escape work tonight (after a 6:30 pm meeting), I need to clean my dirty, neglected apartment and do 3 weeks worth of laundry. Maybe shave my legs.

But if you are in the area, come check out the Film Fest! I've worked really hard on it, and I am so excited about how it's turning out.

Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival

MontBleu Resort Casino Spa

Stateline, NV

7 - 10 pm, doors open at 6:30

Here are some scenes from the movies we're showing:

Scattered Fluries

Nico's Challenge

1% of the Story

Eastern Rises

Better Bones & Gardens

The Windmill Farmer

Oktapodi

Work, Spin, Work

According to the handy (scary) little countdown clock on the Film Fest event page, there is exactly 3 days, 23 hours, 52 minutes until go time.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

That's why today, I left spin class and went back to work. Well, technically, "back to work" because I'm working on a laptop on my kitchen table. But still. More work.

At least it's fun work. I'm making the playlist that will play before and after the films and during intermission. Unfortunately, my music taste tends toward 80's/rap/Lady Gaga, which I don't think goes all that well with the Wild & Scenic theme.

What music do you think works for an environmental film fest during the filtering in/intermission/filtering out portion?

If no one is in the office to see me nap on the floor, did it really happen?

I am beat today. Not only is it the regular tiredness of a Friday, but spin class was a killer last night.

Since Wednesday was a lazy beer and Buffy night, I decided to do a couple of miles of speed work before spin last night. Mistake? Maybe.

It was definitely the hardest spin class I've ever done. I think it was the combination of our instructor was working us extra hard + the speed work done before hand + the fact that I was still sore from my weight work out on Tuesday.

When I rode outside President's Day weekend, it was a lot harder than I was expecting. I've been really good about putting in the time, so I realized that I need to kick it into a higher gear (metaphorically and literally).

I need to up the resistance when I'm spinning. I need to not cruise at a comfortable pace when I'm running. I need to lift heavier weights. So I've started doing that. And it's hard, but the good kind of hard.

The other reason that I'm tired?

It's only one week until the 6th Annual Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival!

This is the first event that I'm putting on at my job, and those of you who've planned an event know how crazy and stressful it is right about now.

What's going to go wrong? Will the films work? Will anyone come? Will this be the worst Film Fest ever? Argh!

But I'm so excited! We get to be on the marquee!

This is why I don't operate heavy machinery until I've had my first cup of coffee

I decided to have a smoothie for breakfast this morning. I got out all of my ingredients (frozen strawberries, frozen peaches, spinach, banana, and almond milk) and put my blender together.

I added the frozen strawberries, and noticed my blender wasn't plugged in. So I plugged it in. Unfortunately, it was on. Frozen strawberries went flying across the kitchen. Meira immediately grabbed one and ran under the coffee table with her prize.

I recovered from the shock and shut off the blender. Luckily, there wasn't any liquid and most of the strawberries ended up on the counter or on the linoleum. I rescued the my strawberry from the dog, cleaned up the strawberry explosion, and (successfully) made my smoothie.

Picture from here.

Note to self: Make sure blender is off before plugging it in.

Anyone else have any kitchen mishaps lately?

Sometimes your body wants to run...

And sometimes your body wants to eat soup, drink beer, and watch Buffy on Netflix.

Tonight was option #2

Beer: Boulder Brewing Company, Flashback India-Style Brown Ale (two thumbs up, and only $14 for a 12 pack at the Gross Out).

Buffy: Season 1 (I'm watching from the beginning)

Soup: Lentil Curry Spinach Potato Onion Garlic (I need catchier names for my soups)

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion

1 tbsp minced garlic

1.5 cups potatoes chopped into 1 inch cubes

1.5 cups lentils

1.5 tbsp curry powder

7 cups water

1 tsp sea salt

3-4 cups spinach chopped

1. Drink some beer (or wine or coffee or hot chocolate or other delicious beverage0.

2. Heat up olive oil and saute garlic and onion on medium until "golden" (or yellow, which is less appetizing) into big pot with a lid.

3. Meanwhile cook potatoes (I used 3 small russets) for about 2.5 minutes in the microwave. Chop into 1 inch chunks and toss into pot.

4. Cook the veggies for another 5 minutes or so.

5. Add the water (or broth, if you wish, and I imagine you could use dairy if you wanted a creamier soup) and lentils and heat to a boil.

6. Reduce to simmer and add curry powder and salt.

7. Let simmer until lentils are thoroughly cooked. (35 ish minutes)

8. Don't forget to continue to drink your beverage of choice.

9. When lentils are cooked through, taste, and add more seasoning to taste.

10. Add spinach. Let simmer for another 10 minutes or so.

11. Enjoy! Maybe with another beverage.

Now, imagine that I am a responsible blogger and I took pictures of this process and the delicious result.

February Totals

Swim: 0 (baaad)

Run: 26.1 (almost a marathon, and more than January, which is awesome for a shorter month)

Bike: 164 (best part- some of this was ridden outside! woo hoo!)

Other: 13.2 (ie elliptical, stair climber, walking hills etc. I wish that I had some way to track snowboarding or hiking with my bike distance, because the other number would definitely be higher).

I was pretty good about lifting at least twice a week. Less good about yoga twice a week, but I think I did at least once a week. I worked on speeding up my runs, and I'm pretty confident that I did at least half my miles at a 10 minute mile pace.

I was definitely better about tracking my spending this month, and, what do you know, I came much closer to my budget targets. I also reached my goal of not buying any new clothes in February, I'm going to try to extend that through March, making an exception for technical gear (but staying within budget!) and maybe a dress for KJW's wedding.

I think I was definitely more social this month, while sticking to my budget for socialization, but I could be better about accepting invitations. I got outside to enjoy the outdoors a bunch this month, with snowboarding, running outside, and doing some mountain biking in Santa Barbara. The weather is just getting better and better (though not today, nasty mix of rain and snow) and it's staying light out for longer and longer. I love it! I can't wait until I can bike to work.

New things!

New hobbies are expensive.

Backcountry.com is having Semi-Annual Sale with Free 2-day shipping right now, and today is the last day.

I definitely bought a coat, goggles, and mittens for snowboarding. Well, the coat is partly for fashion because I have a serviceable shell, but it's ugly and doesn't match my pants. It's also a little short.

G-chat conversation with Katie today:

Lynn: I may have bought a coat, goggles, and mittens today.

Katie: You are turning into a snowboarder!

Lynn: Yeah, brah. Toasty.

I think that I'm going to buy a mid-season pass at Sierra-at-Tahoe. I'd prefer Heavenly, but they don't offer mid-season pricing, and I am definitely not paying $800 for only half a season.

Now I just need a board, boots, and bindings. And maybe a butt pad.

A very special day

Yesterday was Dan's birthday, so in honor of that, I am going to tell you five things that I like about him.

Dan at Yosemite, with Half Dome in the background.

1. Dan taught me how to mountain bike.

He is a great teacher, and I doubt I would love riding as much as I do if I hadn't learned from someone so awesome. He is also good at mountain biking.

2. Dan sends me pictures of dogs.

Usually when I wake up and check my email there is a picture of a cute dog in my inbox. He even sends me pictures of big dogs, even though he is weird and likes small dogs.

3. He is way smart. He builds lasers!

I didn't have a picture of Dan being smart, so here is a picture of me being smart and Dan standing next to me.

4. He has such a nice beard!

I heart beards.

5. He is very nice. Last time I went down to Santa Barbara, he had strawberries waiting for me when I arrived. He didn't even make fun of me that much when I ate 2 pounds of them in less than 24 hours.

He also doesn't make fun of me when I make this face.

He also goes with me on outings that I'm pretty confident he's not interested in, like the pumpkin patch or whale watching. He once drove 17 hours out of 36 each way to help me move to Lake Taco so I wouldn't have to move up by myself.

America's Next Top Pumpkin Model

All in all, he's a special dude, and I like him. Happy Birthday (a day late), Dan!