Round Up: Summer Reflections
Technically, the first day of fall isn’t until tomorrow, but tomorrow is all about WIAW, so you’re getting my summer re-cap today. I know I kept saying it went too fast to remember, but looking back, the truth is I had a pretty eventful and memorable summer.
I thought it would be fun for me to reflect on all the fun I had.
Then I promise I’ll let the summer-talk go.
That doesn’t include talking about things I plan to do next summer though 😛
This summer:
I graduated college.
Whoa, did that really happen?
Still hard to believe.
Then left for vacation the next day.
It’s not New Orleans without crawfish and a Hand Grenade, right?
I came home and ate weird things.
I celebrated Memorial Day the best way I know how.
Eating.
Racing.
I celebrated my blogiversary.
I went to the Denver Chalk Art Festival.
I moved.
I had my second blogger meet-up with the amazing Lindsay.
I celebrated what was probably my favorite 4th of July.
I went to Santa Fe for my 22nd birthday.
And celebrated an equally important birthday… my mom’s!
I started training for my second half marathon.
In August, I created some amazing recipes.
Okay, only two, but that’s better than nothing, right?
And went to the Shakespeare Festival.
And Ikea. In one weekend.
I also did about a million other things, but for the sake of you readers I won’t include every trip to the Farmers’ Market or the pool.
One of the reasons I love having this blog, is because it makes it so easy to go back and look at everything I’ve done. And it makes it much easier to appreciate how much fun I have, and how many things I have to be thankful for 🙂
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What were the highlights of your summer?
10 Miler, Oh Yeah
Yesterday rocked.
It started out with an amazing double digit run. Last year, I cried after my 10-mile run. I was so proud of myself and never thought I’d see myself, someone who always struggled at running, run TEN miles. I know there’s lots of people who run huge long distances (cough Joey cough), but 10 miles is a HUGE accomplishment for me.
The last time I ran 10 miles, it went amazingly. I’ve been trying not to compare myself to myself when I trained last year, but it’s hard and I was really nervous that this year’s 10-miler wouldn’t go as well. Like really nervous. But I believe in the power of positive thinking and was mentally determined to have an amazing run.
Started at 7:30 with a peanut butter banana smoothie.
Then we set out.
We ran into another race!! Except, this time no one mistook me as a racer and cheered me on 😦 They just offered me cups of water.
I had doubts once we hit the 7.25 mile to take a break, but I started talking about GMO’s and got distracted. Then I booked it up the final hill. Awesome 🙂
Overall time = 1:40:25. Compared to 1:39:32 last year. Slower, but not by much!
Splits (because I don’t think I’ve posted any long run splits this year!):
- 10:43
- 10:20
- 10:01
- 10:01
- 9:56
- 9:52
- 9:57
- 10:00
- 9:43
- 9:45
I’m proud 🙂
And tired looking, apparently.
I came back, cooled off, Google Reader-ed (yes, that’s a verb) and when hunger finally set it, I celebrated with some chocolate chip pancakes.
And a maple syrup puddle.
But chocolate chip pancakes isn’t enough of a celebration, if you ask me.
Unless followed by a decaf grande soy no whip 2-pump pumpkin spice latte. Say that ten times fast!
Sipped on while grocery shopping.
Shopping when I have the day off > rushed shopping because I have to get to work.
After my shopping trip, I met my parents back at my place (they hadn’t seen our apartment since we set up our Ikea goodies) and then they whisked me off to Boulder for some Sunday afternoon tacos. I know, I know, I for someone who claims to hate tacos, I sure eat them a lot. I guess I don’t “hate” tacos, I’m just super picky about them.
The ones they serve at Alfalfa’s win my approval.
You can get beef, fish or veggie.
I went with one fish and one veggie, topped with green salsa and slaw. They were out of guacamole… the horror!
Loved the fall set-up outside of Alfalfa’s.
Afterwards, we ventured inside so my mom could spoil me with goodies. Awesome!
I tried to stay in control and kept it to three items. And to be fair, she totally offered to buy the most expensive one.
So what did I get?
Silken tofu.
Will someone please tell me what makes silken tofu silken?
Pumpkin.
Duh.
Pumpkin spice syrup, here I come.
Fancy olive oil.
Which I can’t remember the name of, but I do know I got to fill my own little glass bottle.
Sa-weet.
Thanks, Mom!
I proceeded to be hungry again two hours later.
The rest of the day involved coconut curried potatoes with peas, blogging and the Emmy’s.
In other words, it was the perfect day and totally lived up to my expectations 🙂
Happy Tuesday!
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P.S. Did you notice the new blog look? Compliments of Joey — love him!
Fall Has… Fallen?
I was trying to think of a fall equivalent for “spring has sprung,” but I think it’s pretty weak. Also, I can’t think clearly when someone is clapping my face between their hands because the Cowboys just scored a touchdown.
Aaaanyways, although I really love summer (I swear your birth season is always your favorite), early fall makes me practically giddy. If it was longer and didn’t come before that one season that begins with a “W,” it would be even better.
This weekend has been full of all the things that make early fall so near and dear to my heart.
Curry.
Curry in a hurry to be exact.
I didn’t actually know what I was doing, I just cooked some onions then added some curry, paprika, soy sauce, water, butternut squash cubes, zucchini moons and when those were done, I tossed in some chickpeas.
There’s nothing more comforting than a hot bowl of curry on a fall day.
Some awesome sandwiches were also made.
Amazing tomato jam.
These sandwiches had it all. Grilled eggplant, tomato jam, spicy arugula and melty fontina cheese.
Best part of the week: We needed Italian bread for this recipe so I sent Joey to the grocery store with our list that said, “Ital. bread.” I guess I wrote the I and t too close together because when he got back he said, “What the heck is Hal bread??” So funny. And funnier still that Hal bread was his most recent Google search.
And that Hal bread was so good.
Let’s not talk about the Rockies game we attended on Friday night. It wasn’t pretty. I also didn’t recognize 98% of the lineup.
We hit up Oktoberfest afterwards, which is just a giant German festival in downtown Denver. Everyone is drinking beer in lederhosen. I forgot mine at home.
Just kidding, only two of those were mine.
Okay savory oats has nothing to do with fall, but I had those this weekend too. For the first time ever!
In the mix:
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rolled oats
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cheese
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pizza sauce
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hummus
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avocado
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s & p
It was a nice change-up, but sweet oats win in my book.
There was also running, eating, shopping and more eating.
Seriously though, my 10-mile run went swimmingly and now I can’t stop eating. **More about my run tomorrow!
Does this picture say fall or what?
Happy Sunday!
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What was your weekend like?
What says fall to you?
Ever had savory oats?
Lauren Loves Good Food 