One week until the half-marathon

The Dallas Rock-n-roll half marathon is next weekend!  I am really not ready.  I went for my long run this morning, aiming to do at least ten miles, and hoping to go twelve.  I made it just under 4.  My knee is giving me problems, and I was not wearing the right clothes.  Today was actually the first warm day I've been running this year, and I wore some running shorts that I haven't worn since before I was pregnant with the fat little rabbit.  Big mistake.  The skin on the inside of my thighs is so very chaffed, it isn't funny.  So I wimped out, and came home.  After the kids are in bed tonight, I'll go out again, and do another 4 miles, then try to fit in 4 more tomorrow.  I think for the race next weekend, I'll plan on doing a run 4 miles, walk 2-3 minutes, run again sort of thing.  I really need to find a way to fit in runs in the middle of the week, or get over my hatred for the elliptical.  Training just by doing long runs on the weekend clearly is not sufficient.

Cinnamon pull apart bread

I've been wanting to make cinnamon pull apart bread since reading this post from Smitten Kitchen.  I made the cheddar beer mustard pull apart bread a few weeks ago, and it was delicious.  This morning I decided to give the cinnamon sugar recipe she linked to a try.  Yum.  Next time I won't use quite as much sugar as the recipe calls for though.  A good quarter of the mixture ended up on the cutting board during the stacking process anyway, and it was plenty sweet.

I didn't get it out of the oven until after lunch time though.  My younger son refused to eat his lunch today, and we told him no dessert or snacks if he didn't eat lunch.  He agreed that was fine.  About half an hour later, this was ready.  When he learned that we really weren't going to let him have any, he was very sad.  He promises to eat his dinner tonight so he can have some then.

Countdown to half marathon

I received a registration confirmation sheet in my e-mail yesterday for the Dallas Rock-n-Roll half marathon.  I'm getting excited, but worried too!  When I signed us up, I thought I'd have enough time to train to try to get to a 10 min/mile pace.  Yes, I am slow, and 10 min/mile is pretty fast for me!  I wanted to have a decent chance of being able to keep up with my husband though.  I haven't been training as much as I should though, so seeing the expected finish time of 2:10 gave me a big laugh yesterday.  I can start off with that pace, but I doubt I'll even tie my time in my first half marathon.  My husband tore his quad muscle playing adult rec soccer last weekend, so he's not sure he'll be able to run at all.  I'm still glad I signed up for this one, and will enjoy the race, even if I have to walk part of it!

A trampoline park opened sort of near us, and has fitness classes on Wednesday nights for $10.  Kids under 7 can jump for free during the class, so I think I am going to start going.  May be a nice fun way to sneak some exercise in during the week.  Oh, who am I kidding.  I just think it looks fun.

Book #7

Book #7 was Kate Elliott's In the Ruins.  I am enjoying the series, but am uncertain how the author is going to manage to wrap up the story in one more book.  Also, Hugh is just a despicable bad guy.  The existence of his character actively decreases my enjoyment of the books.  I know the bad guy has a role to play in most books, but I really want Hugh to fall off a cliff.  I don't even find him to be an interesting bad character - just evil.

Baked Brie and the Last of the Curtains

I love baked brie.  But I have a secret - I hate the rind on brie.  I can't make myself eat it.  When I order baked brie at a restaurant, I am careful to eat around the rind.  A few months ago, I tried making baked brie at home.  I carefully cut off the rind, arranged the gooey cheesy insides on sheets of puff pastry, and added dried fruit and honey.  It was a disaster.  A tasty disaster, but a disaster nonetheless.  The gooey goodness that is melted brie melted right out of the puff pastry layers I had tried to trap it in.  I did some looking on Google, sure that someone else must hate the rind as much as I do, but the internet consensus seemed to be that I would have to get over my dislike of the rind.  No way.  I had to try again.  This time, rather than making mini squares, I kept the puff pastry sheet whole, intending on wrapping the edges up around the cheese, leaving no room for it to escape.  I scooped the cheese out of the icky rind,  and added some chopped dried cherries and honey.

I wrapped it all up, and put it in the oven, hoping for the best!

20 or so minutes later, and success!  All of the gooey melty goodness that is baked brie, and it all stayed in the puff pastry.  It is possible to make a baked brie without the rind.

I finished the fat little rabbit's curtains several weeks ago, but did not have any rings to hang them up.  I finally remembered I needed them while I was at Target.  Her other nickname is "bug-bug" so I thought the print was appropriate.  And yes, I know they need to be ironed.  

Six point something miles and book #6

My husband and I had Monday off of work, but school was still in session, so we enjoyed a nice adults only day!  My husband suggested we take our long run together, as we were visiting relatives over the weekend and had not had a chance to run.  He promised to stay in the same general area as me, but he runs a good 2-3 minutes per mile faster than me!  I lost him soon after we entered the park.  I was running faster than I usually do though!  I usually start at around a 10 minute mile, but by mile 2, am inching closer to the 11 minute mile pace.  Monday I was still at a sub 10 minute mile through three or so miles.  My husband had lapped me, and started running next to me for a few minutes.  Suddenly it felt like the earth tilted under me, and my vision was swimming.  I stopped to walk until it cleared.  I think I just hadn't had enough to drink all weekend (Houston tap water sucks).  We also had plans to go for Mexican or barbeque after our run, and I skipped breakfast to save room!  Bad idea, I guess.  Anyway, I walked for a hundred yards or so, then started running again, albeit much more slowly!  I think I terrified my husband though, as he stuck with me for the next three miles.  We were back in the main part of the park by then, and I stopped to use the restrooms.  I sent my husband on to finish his run, and started a run/walk rotation around one of the smaller ponds until he was done.  I got in around 2 miles.  So not the ten I had planned, but better than nothing!

We went to Houston to visit my grandmother-in-law.  She thought our boys might enjoy the Houston Children's Museum, and she was right!  When we lived in Boston, our boys had a membership to the children's museum, and we went fairly often. We haven't really found a good replacement in Dallas yet.  The Houston museum was awesome!  It had one of the multi-story climbing platforms, which I know our oldest son had missed from Boston.  The rules said you had to be at least five years old to climb though, so our youngest boy could not climb (although there were plenty of people blatantly ignoring the rule).  There was also a really awesome room called the Invention Convention.  There were stations for kids to make rockets, lego cars, and wind sails.  I loved watching the kids' imaginations at work.

I finished Catching Fire on our trip, and bought Mockingjay when we went grocery shopping Monday.  I finished it during my lunch break today.  I am very glad I read the series.  I felt the ending was a bit rushed, and though the resolution of the Gale vs. Peeta situation could have been fleshed out a bit more.  Overall, a very enjoyable series though.  I am looking forward to the movie next month.

2012 Book Challenge #5

Unsurprisingly, book 5 is Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy.  I picked it up at Target last night, then stayed up entirely too late reading last night.  I finished it this morning during a road trip to visit family.  I should have picked up the last book in the series while I was at the store -- now I have an extra errand to add to my list for tomorrow.