Seven Links

Awhile back Sarah tagged me to do a 7-links post (thanks, Sarah), and I'm fiiiiiinally getting around to it.  I know the 7-links meme was so last month, but that's about as current as I can keep.

1. The most beautiful post- This is stretching it, but I'm going to say my post about walking across the lake in January.  I'm a warm weather girl at heart, but I have to admit, there's something strange and beautiful about Wisconsin in the winter.    

2. The most popular post- Interestingly, according to the blog stats- is this post Daniel wrote about not cheating when you do squats.

3. The most controversial post- Hmmmm... maybe when I got bored and tried eating paleo for a month.  Or when I mocked the governor.  Or when I called beets disgusting.

4. The most helpful post- I think some of my garden-related posts were pretty good.  Also, I had some posts on what to do with an overabundance of vegetables such as how to make and can salsa, and how to freeze broccoli.

5. The post that was surprisingly successful- Apparently my "in the bag" post about what I have in my office and carry around in my (at the time) very dirty backpack.  This was an idea from the SHUBox.  I'm wondering if she linked to it because compared to all my other posts, the pageviews for this one are off the charts.

6. The post I didn't feel got the attention it deserved- Apparentely it wasn't, but I really did think this post was funny.

7. The post I'm most proud of- I got nothin'...

I think it's time for the 7 things meme to end it's 45 day internet life so I'm going not going to tag anyone else to complete it.  If you want to, that's great; knock yourself out.  On that note, I'm going to go knock out a run and burn off some zucchini muffins.

 

One year

It's not often that I can remember almost exactly what I was doing about the same time a year before, but this year- like last year- I spent most of yesterday at the Sugar Maple Music Festival.

Polka!

Yesterday morning while I was running, I started thinking about all the similarities and differences between this year and last.

• Last year I was training for the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon and I started the morning with a 20 mile run.  
• This year I slept in and was glad I didn't have to run 20 miles because it was hot.

• Last year I didn't do much strength training
• This year- Tuesday, in fact- I'm planning to try for a new 1-rep max on the bench press (115lbs.  That's a 35lb plate on each side. Light weight, baby!) and did 3 sets of 2 reps at 150lbs on the deadlift last Thursday.

• Last year I spent most of the day reading a murder mystery (A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley)
• This year I spent most of the day reading a murder mystery (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).  Both are great books but certainly very different.

• Last year Daniel didn't have a beard!  Wow, I forgot what that looked like!

• This year he has been fully integrated into society.

• Last year, after the 20 mile run and the music festival, we went to see a friend's band play a late night show.  I was like deliriously tired in that picture.  And I'd planned to do a 5-mile recovery run the next morning.  That didn't happen.
• This year we got that out of the way the week before.  I'm also not doing a 5-mile run this year, but I am planning to hit up a yoga class in the afternoon.

• Last year we went to a wedding the day after.  Wow, that was a lot of stuff in one weekend.
• This year we still see almost all the people in this picture on a regular basis.  And one- second from left- is due with her first baby in October!  

It just doesn't seem that long ago!

What has stayed constant in your life since last year?  What has changed?  What do you think this time next year will bring?

If I had a million dollars...

Periodically I get a clothing catalog from a company called Boden out of the UK.  I hadn't heard of it before, and I'm not sure how my name got on the mailing list, but I enjoy going through it and picking out all my favorite items.  Not only are the outfits cute, but it's one of the few companies I've seen that carry clothing that *I* consider truly warm enough for getting around in the winter.

I bet this red coat would raise January vitamin D levels all on its own:

 
BUT, all the items are super pricey.  Ever wondered what a $200 hoodie looks like?

Now you know.  Granted it's made of cashmere, but a $200 hoodie?  Really?  Better not spill anything on that.

Out of curiosity, I added most of the items I'd flagged when I was flipping through the catalog to the online shopping bag, just to see what would happen.

Actually, $2400 is less that I thought the total would be.  I must have missed some shoes!   Anyway, the fun is in the shopping, not the buying.

Have a dream kitchen/clothing/jewelry/housewares/sporting goods/whatever store you love to look at but is waaaaayyyyy out of your price range?

Looks like I need to go click "remove" 18 times and then head out for a run.  We're going to a music festival this afternoon, which will provide a lot of good listening and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo reading relaxation.  Have a fun Saturday!




 

Party like an undergrad

Saturday was my annual night out after 10pm!  Daniel and I went sent to see a friend- the husband of second from right- play at Quaker Steak and Lube (yep, a gas station themed restaurant/bar).

Smile if you normally go to bed at 9pm!

This was kind of a "reunion show" for our friend's band- except this year he didn't play with a band, he played with a guy who wasn't in the original band- I think?  The dynamics were kind of confusing.  The important part is that I'm fairly certain I haven't been out that late since his show last year.

Then I slept in until- gasp!- 8am the next morning.  My life is a Katy Perry song.

Although I don't remember anything about her making her own nectarine fro-yo ice cream sandwiches.  Mmmmm.... sprinkles.

Yes, that's exactly what it's like...

Nation's Optometrists Finally Starting To Recover After Raucous Optic Disc Expo 2011

It's pretty exciting when The Onion parodies something specific to your own life.  Not that I think the writers of the article had ARVO (the vision conference we attend almost every year in Ft. Lauderdale) in mind, but they got some great coaching on eyeball terms.

An excerpt:

While days were reportedly filled with "mind-blowing," "wild," and "f***ing amazing" presentations on hyperopia in baby boomers and new ways of reducing bilateral papilledema, optometrists said they also spent long nights in their hotel rooms talking with colleagues well into the morning hours on wide-ranging topics such as the vessels that supply blood to the retina and slit-lamp biomicroscopic examinations.


The eye specialists told reporters that when they returned home from the intense weekend of nonstop optic disc lectures and discussions they "immediately passed out."


"I got maybe three hours of sleep the entire expo," said Dr. Cyrus Patel, who had to cancel nearly 40 appointments this week because he was too exhausted to go into work. "I kept telling myself I was allowed only one more optic disc drusen seminar and then I had to go to bed, but that would mean missing Dr. Lappen's keynote on optical coherence tomography, and it's like, you only live once, you know? It's not like there's another Optic Disc Expo next month. This is it for 2011."


Yesterday was not the funnest day ever at work (at least the AC was fixed), so it was a great surprise when someone found this at 4pm.  I need to go raid the bins to get a couple paper copies.  As someone who spends waaayyyyy to much time thinking about "vessels that supply blood to the retina"- heck I'm hoping to have three papers on that topic accepted this year- that was probably my favorite line.  I've talked that topic to death but fortunately not in the wee hours of the morning.  Unless I was having nightmares.

Things are basically back to normal with the cooling systems on campus, and the gym is open again today.  I'm chugging coffee to try to wake up because we were out late last night at the Gillian Welch concert (fantastic!).  Hopefully I won't have to fight anyone for the squat rack as I am feeling slow and dimwitted.  Have any fun plans for the weekend?  My sleep schedule is going to be further disrupted by seeing a friend play a show Saturday night, but that's about it other than the usual chores, etc.
 

Five Things Friday

1. I got my hair cut yesterday (by Gen at ChaCha on Willy St. if anyone wants to know).  It's really short in the back now-  not so much the front- and I love it!  You can see it in the reflection in the mirror.  It's really hard to take a picture of the back of your own head.

2. I had another lovely evening at Concerts on the Square Wednesday evening with the stat group at work.  Lots of food and good company.  One of our fellows is moving on in a couple weeks, so it was one of the last times we'll all get to hang out together.  She would be very unhappy if her face ended up on the internet, though, so we'll pretend that R.A. Fisher joined us.  That's appropriate, I think.

I has mad Paint skillz.

 For my part, I made fruit salsa and cinnamon chips based on this recipe I found on Pinterest.  I actually used soft corn tortillas for the chips because that's what we had on hand.  Mmmmm... Summertastic.

3. The Brooks shoe fairy sent me a new pair of shoes to wear test.  This was perfect timing because I'm about 450 miles into my last pair, and it was about time for some new ones.  Thanks, Brooks!

4. I accidentally left two Mt. Dews in the freezer yesterday and they exploded.  I didn't even mean to put them in the freezer.  I was just going to stick them in the fridge, but when I came home to defrost something for dinner, my fridge looked like Slimer came for a visit.

Why you want to treat me so bad???  Don't you know I love you?

5. Our CSA box is filled with all kinds of exciting vegetables this week.

We've got beets, carrots, 2 kohlrabi, some fennel, and only two heads of lettuce.  I can't believe I'm finally saying this, but after eating a salad every day at work and often on the weekend for lunch for the past year(?) maybe longer, I think I'm officially sick of salad.  Too bad I have no idea what else to take/make for lunch!  I know a lot of people do leftovers, but anytime I make anything that's actually good for dinner, we always finish it up and don't have leftovers.  I only take leftovers for lunch when the dish was kind of gross.
 
Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying everything in the box except that I'm slightly nervous about the beets.  I don't know if I like beets (def. hate pickled beets like on a salad bar), so I think I'm going to cook those and take them to a potluck we're going to on Sunday evening.

And with that I've got to take off so I can beat the 19-year-olds taking calc 2 in summer school to the squat rack at the gym.  Happy Friday!  Got any big weekend plans??

Hipster Saturday

It all started with a trip to Art Fair on the Square...

We, and 75% of the rest of the local population, converged on the capitol at 9:30am to see some art before it got too hot (Read: 85 degrees- That's weak, people!).   Fortunately it wasn't too hard to see because at least half the people there had to hit up the food tents for a breakfast beer and ice cream cone with a side of Hot, Spicy Cheese Bread! before they were ready to shop.  Our mission was to find an appropriate gift for two certain someones who are having an eventful summer.

We made our way through the exhibits, trying to decide.  99.5% of things were automatically eliminated for costing more than 1/2 our monthly rent.  I was a fan of the giant metal yard giraffe, but after further discussion, we thought that TSA regulations wouldn't allow it to be carried on and stowed in an overhead compartment.  We also considered a painting of SNOW with one little tiny brown leafless tree.  (It's coming for you, A! - No, not really.  I bet you'll learn to love snow in DC because it means you get to sleep in for a few more hours until the plow comes by).  In the end we did find what I hope will be a fun gift.  However, it must remain a secret for now.

On the final stretch, we stopped at the busiest vendor we'd seen so far.  Kitchen ceramics + ironic stamps + nothing more than $100 = hipster bait.  It worked on me.

 
Do I need a spoon rest with a whale on it?  How could I not?

And what is the most appropriate first use of a hipster whale spoon rest?  Attempting to make homemade ice cream in the food process, of course.  Inspired by this recipe at cooking with TJ's and a huge bag of cherries in the fridge, I set out to make my own Cherry Garcia froyo.

Pitted cherries go in the freezer.

Then they get thrown in the food processor with Greek yogurt and sugar.  After pureeing everything, I stirred in some chocolate chips and poured it into a container to stash in the freezer for a couple hours.

Dinner is served:

So what?  I had a salad, too.  It was pretty good!  Not Babcock Hall, but so what?

Daniel's contribution to Hipster Saturday was to watch the entire Ken Burns Civil War Series on Netflix (also he helped me pit the cherries).

And now to start Hipster Sunday with a bike ride to church...  In the spirit of national reconciliation, I hope all the  Northerners are stocking up on their vitamin D and the Southerners are enjoying their central AC!

Theme from A Summer Place

In Madison, you have learn to cram a year's worth of fun in four months.  I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.  So far I've:

• I've attended a 3-way birthday party,

 

• Gone to my first Mallard's game

• Learned there's a reason I've never eaten a mulberry before (Holy stems, Batman.  My hands are still a little purple)

               and that I enjoy my healthy CSA veggies best in gooey pasta form

• Watched the sun set from Observatory Hill

                  and the Rhythm and Booms fireworks from across the lake

• And traveled to Dubuque where I won my weight in catfish at the slot machines.

Thankfully not true on that last one.  We visited crazy 300lb dino-catfish at the Aquarium of the Mississippi.

As a side note, I hadn't gone to see the fireworks in a couple years, and I'm glad that they are still making advances in fancy explosion science and technology.  My favorite was the smileys.

The one thing I haven't managed to do yet is get re-conditioned to running in warm weather.  I ran on Saturday morning when it 77, and I was sure it had to be 107.  After a water stop and a walk for a minute in the shade break (yes, I'm not too proud to admit it) I was happy I wasn't trying to crank out a 20-miler like I would have been last summer.  Yesterday wasn't soooo bad, but man, SWEAT.  Hopefully I'll get a little better conditioned so I don't die when I try to run when I'm back in Florida in another month.

Hope you are having a fun summer so far and had a relaxing 3-day weekend.

Angry birds

So I totally saw another runner get dive bombed by a blackbird yesterday.  I didn't have my camera with me, and I couldn't find a picture of an actual bird on runner attack, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit.

It was sort of like this, except the guy I saw was by a lake, not waiting for a subway, wishing he'd sprung for the fried rice rather than the white because, really, it was only $0.57 more.

Or this, except the guy I saw was running, not frantically trying to make a casting call for extras on the Jersey Shore the day his car broke down.

Or like this, except the guy I saw was human, not a bird.  I'm thinking that blackbird is about to get it.

On a totally different note, Madison- liberal, animal hugging, organic loving, CSA eating, Prius driving Madison- is planning euthanize 350 Canada geese that are taking over and pooping on four city parks.

I can totally see how it's going to go down.  Gov. Scott Walker will come on TV to give us the announcement.

 
"Good people of Wisconsin, it has come to my attention that there are far too many geese in Madison.  Did you know animals only pay for 63% of the cost of their health insurance.  Unacceptable!  I took my pugapoo to the park last week and stepped in goose poop.  Disgusting!  Something must be done!"

"Now I know that you're going to get all up in arms about this.  Just like you always do.  I can never get a freakin' break around here.  But this time I've come up with the perfect solution."

"This resolution gives the Department of Natural Resources the power to euthanize the geese by force feeding them."

"You just grab the head, and cram the food down their throat.  It's waaaaayyyyy easier than spreading around a bunch of poison."

"We will give one free fois gras dinner to every business that commits to relocating to Wisconsin.  It's a win-win for everyone.  I don't know how this plan could not work!"

Ever been attacked by a bird and/or other animal while running or seen someone on the wrong end of a bird beak?  Or- if you are tech savvy vampire who avoids sunlight at all costs- do you play Angry Birds?

Happy Birthday!

To two special men in my life.

To Dad:


To Daniel:




Hope you both have a great birthday.

A most auspicious day

Not only was yesterday the summer solstice, luring me to stay up past my bedtime watching Pushing Daisies*, it was the SMPH ice cream Christmas**!  Sure there are football games and basketball games, and all manner of classes and research and distinguished-type speakers on campus, but for the School of Medicine and Public Health, one day stands above them all.  The Day They Bring The Free Ice Cream and We Can Eat As Much As We Want Day.

We'd gotten at least three e-mails reminding us that the big day was about to arrive.  I was thinking about putting together one of those paper advent chains you make when you are a kid so I could tear one off per day and think, "Just a little bit closer to SMPH ice cream Christmas."

 
Everybody who is anybody was there, including three big time Madison Runner-Bloggers.  That would be: yours truly (I scoop mocha macchiato, 1 scoop chocolate peanut butter), TutuRunner (1 scoop chocolate peanut butter, 1 scoop orange custard chocolate chip), and Running Diva Mom (1 scoop cookie dough, 1 scoop chocolate chip frozen yogurt***).

Not wanting to waste such a lucky day, I decided to use some of our limpy kale to make kale chips.  There was much excitement and surprise that they tasted good!  Kale + salt + garlic + olive oil + Parmesan cheese + oven = tasty.

Daniel proclaimed them the strangest thing he'd ever eaten, but then I reminded him of these.

Which are still- inexplicably- in our cabinet.

What's The Biggest Day of the Year where you work?  Or the strangest thing you've eaten lately?

*Only three episodes left- I simultaneously want to call in sick and knock them out and stretch them out and make them last forever- darn you, writer's strike!
** Not to be confused with Hippie Christmas, that's in a couple months.
*** Actually I don't know what flavor(s) she ate, I just added that for symmetry.

Other mysteries are yet unsolved

How did this

and this

and this

all end up with the same name?

Maybe I'll submit that one to The Straight Dope.  Any mysteries plaguing you this Monday?

I'm also kind of wondering if I'm going to get soaked on my way to the gym, and what's going to happen in the last 6 episodes of Pushing Daisies.  

Another one of life's mysteries solved

Where do all those socks that get lost in the dryer go?

To my apartment.

Learn to walk- Just do it!

And that was the haul from just one load of laundry.  Guess I should take these guys back downstairs so they can be reunited with their lost relatives.

Who knew there was so much dumb sock humor out there?  I think this is the first image search I've done where a random girl in a bikini didn't show up on the first page.

We share a washer and dryer with a few other apartments in our building, and occasionally someone will miss something and it will end up with another person's clothes.  I think three socks is my record, though.  Hopefully three pairs of my underwear isn't someone else's.

Got any good "fun with apartment life" stories you want to share?