HBBC Week 5 Summary and BAKING COOKIES!

I decided to post my HBBC summary a day early since I'm taking today off from working out. Yep, you heard that right. I took today off. Things needed to get done around the house (mom was home today, so I couldn't exactly focus on what I wanted to do) and tomorrow's run is going to be a challenging one for me. I've been loosely following a personalized training plan from RunnersWorld.com and tomorrow is calling for a 5-mile run. BUT, tomorrow is also Christmas Eve, which means I need to get in my virtual 5k. So, I figure I'll run my first mile (or half mile depending on how I feel) as a warm up, knock out my 5k, and then finish up my miles at the "recommended pace" (which seems obnoxiously slow to me). It'll be a good test for me to see where I am as my double 5k is next weekend. Yikes. That experience is just sneaking up on me.

Anyway, my HBBC spreadsheet nearly gave me a heart attack the other night (as those of you who follow my twitter know). My computer had a minor hiccup and I needed to force-restart it. When the computer came back up, it had saved my original spreadsheet as a .xlsb file. I didn't know what that meant until I clicked on the file to open it and IT WOULDN'T OPEN! I spazzed for a good 10 minutes about how I was going to recreate everything (it wouldn't have been a problem, really, between my weights spreadsheet and my dailymile) until I had a little lightbulb flip on over my head (hehe) and I tired just changing the NAME of the file to a .xlsx. Amazingly, IT WORKED. I'm pretty sure I was jumping up and down doing a happy dance. I started going back through this week's and last week's lists and realized I HAVEN'T BEEN COUNTING MY STRETCHING! HOLY GUACAMOLE! Oh well. I won't make that mistake in the future. Lol. I know I have no chance at having the highest points in my category (not even close), but I still like to put up as many points as possible.

The evil press. Apparently it only works for MOM!

So, along with the cleaning frenzy that was today, we talked mom into baking cookies! My grandmother used to be the cookie queen. She'd take DAYS to bake the dozens and dozens of multiple kinds of cookies. Every family, then, got their own BIG tin of the cut out cookies and smaller or medium-size tins of the specialty cookies. Plus any of us who were away at college got our own tins ... with extra of our favorite (and Grandma always knew which ones were our favorite). Imagine her doing this for our family, my uncle's (huge) family, my grandmother's siblings (whoever was left of the 13ish originals), and THEIR families! One of the best parts of December while growing up was helping Grandma make and pack all the cookies. And OF COURSE us kids got to eat the "leftover" dough and lick the beaters after every batch. That's the whole point of BAKING, isn't it? lol. Well, we miss Grandma more than ever around this time of the year. I've been begging mom for a couple weeks now to bake some press cookies (one of my favorites ... but I can never get the press thing to work right by myself) and I guess dad asked about peanut butter cookies (HIS favorite) so mom caved and baked today. I seriously felt like a 5-year old waiting for her to press the dough so I could sprinkle the sugar crystals and stick the cookie sheets in the oven. That was always my job when I baked with grandma and I still don't let anyone else do it. The red sugar crystals just sprinkled on the flower cookies and the green sugar crystals get sprinkled on the tree cookies, just like Grandma used to do. In our family, there is NO other way TO do them! Period. End of story.

Now I just have to try not to let myself eat all the cookies before we even get to Christmas. Mom's family isn't doing a party for Christmas Eve (for the first time in decades), so I don't have any distractions from those delicious cookies sitting in the cookie jar ... staring at me ... calling "Eat me! Eat me!" :)

2 Lovely Runs

I wanted to write yesterday ... but life interfered. Nothing dramatic, I was just super tired. It happens. Anyway, I basically did my own Tour de Metroparks to find code words on Monday. I left the lab early to put in my run at Wildwood (more on that later). 2.77 miles in 36:32 isn't very impressive (a 13: average), but I got in a 1.17 mile straight run at a 11:00/mile pace. The rest didn't go as well, and the boardwalk was closed so I didn't get to do any sprints, but it was still a nice run. Then, I made stops at the Botanical Gardens, Secor Metropark, and Oak Openings. I think that may be a personal record for an entire week's worth of codes, let alone 1 afternoon. The Oak Openings code had me a little annoyed, but that's a rant I really don't have the energy to relive right now. Let's just say the directions were a little goofy and it wasn't a clean trail. It was pretty amazing to walk back through the tornado damage. It's been over a year since that storm and the amount of damage still untouched in the park is just remarkable.

I took yesterday off. Like I said, I was exhausted.

I took off early again today, but this time to get coffee with Annie and catch up. I wanted to use my birthday free grande beverage and it was the perfect opportunity. I figured since I left early and I wasn't ready to head home yet (after 2.5 hours at Biggby's. lol), I would go hit another park and get in my run. I hadn't been to Providence at all yet, so that was the park of choice. I parked down at the Providence Dam end and ran up the towpath, past the Ludwig Mill and canal ride, and around the River Bluff Trail. 4.65 mile in 1 hour. Not too shabby considering I ran a 1.54 mile stretch at a 11:14/mile pace. That was my longest run of the workout. There always seemed to be something to slow me down: stitch in the side, the mules pulling the canal boat along the tow path (didn't want to spook them by running past from  their blind side). It was still a good run. I spent my "cool down" walking along the exposed rock downriver of the dam and taking pictures of the goofy geese.

Since mom was going out to dinner with friends and dad is in West Virginia, I made little brother and I dinner. Kid's my witness that I DO cook ... just not when mom and dad are home. Maybe I'll post the picture I took of my plate. My chicken parmesan turned out really well. I was happy.

And now ... an oreo klondike bar and curling up in bed with a movie. N is supposed to be heading home form his vacation tomorrow. Maybe it's time to be blunt with him. Maybe. That would take courage.