I Don't Love Running....

I don't love running. Despite everybody telling me "oh you'll learn to love it" or "just wait, it'll grow on you". Ya, no.  It hasn't.  And let's be honest, I don't really think it will.  I don't love running, buuuutttt.....I have found something I like about it. The accessories.  The accessories are awesome.


It started with my new shoes (which I love).  I bought those and suddenly had the desire to buy everything I would need to look like a professional runner.  Next, I bought socks.  The most expensive socks I have ever bought in my life.  They're fancy schmancy Asics made out of a secret super breathe-able fabric with special supports in the arches and yada yada yada.  They're awesome.  They don't give me any blisters like my stupid old cotton ones did.


After the socks, it was running tops.  Do you know what the best thing about running clothes are? They're bright.  Super bright. They are glow-in-the-dark, a car couldn't hit me by accident if it tried bright.  To me, bright happens to equal awesome.  I have purchased two new running shirts, one with awesome holes for my thumbs, and one that is so bright that one of my co-workers called me a "beacon" today. I love them both, and want more, brighter, better ones.


My favorite new running accessory has to be my new ipod shuffle. I absolutely love it.  It is tiny, and pink, and clips right onto my new running tops and I love it.  I purchased it out of necessity.  I found that the longer runs I was attempting on the weekend were agonizing.  They were agonizing because A) I was running for long distances and B) because I was bored out of my mind. I've gotten up to 3-4 miles on weekends, which at my pace is a solid 30-40 minutes of running time.  And during that entire time I had absolutely nothing to take my mind off the fact that I was running, and that made it so much worse.


So I committed the worst running faux pas in the world, I bought an ipod.  I know, I know, I can hear all the "real" runners groaning.  You're not supposed to listen to music when you run.  You're supposed to listen to your heart beat, breathing, and footsteps on the pavement.  Ya. That wasn't cutting it for me.  So I did it, I broke all the rules, and I now listen to music when I run.  I've found that I finish my runs much stronger when I have Akon yelling in my ear telling me that I'm a "sexy bitch".  True story.

Me with two of my new accessories.  Please note that my face is the same color as my shirt because I had just finished a run.

VOTE FOR CHARLIE!!!

Just wanted to take a moment to use my blog for the power of good, not evil.  

Well, its good for my family anyway.  Please take a moment to vote for my little brother Charlie to win a $5,000 college scholarship from Hood.  Please help send him to college so that he can get rich and take care of me later on in life.  And the best news is-you can vote for him every day until March 15th! YAY!

Please pass this link on to all your friends and everyone in your network.  Charlie will be attending St. Lawrence University (not as good as Trinity but we're still very proud of him) in the fall and it is a ridiculously expensive school.  We know how ridiculously expensive the school is because my sister Molly already goes there.  SLU is sucking my parents dry.  Every bit helps so please vote for Charlie! And then vote for him the next day, and the day after, and the day after that and so on an so forth.

Here is the link to vote!

https://www.hood.com/promo/scholarship/default.aspx?sid=B84A3538-BA53-4F43-BF2F-207FE407F254

Also, I changed the blog background to the hearts yesterday in honor of Valentine's Day, but I'm kind of digging them so I think they will be sticking around for a while :)

Crafty Life Lessons

I was told this weekend that I didn't blog nearly enough-I'm sorry! I was worried about going through THE LIST too quickly.  So I've decided to do some non-LIST related posts whenever I do anything crafty and or cool.  Hence today's post!


For those of you who don't know, I am in charge of hosting all of the birthday celebrations at work-it's pretty awesome.  I thought it would be a lot of fun to have the February birthday celebrations on the 14th this year and make it Valentine's Day themed.  Then I got the genius idea to make heart shaped cupcakes!  I'd seen them on pinterest and foodgawker and they looked SO EASY TO MAKE!  False.

They looked so good and "hearty" (get it?) in the pan

My first attempt was a complete and utter failure.  I mixed the cupcakes, added a little red dye, and filled the cupcake liners.  I made the mistake of filling the liners as I would for normal cupcakes.  DON'T DO THIS.  I then put a little marble in behind the liner and already they looked like cute little hearts.

My first failure

They didn't look like cute little hearts when they came out of the oven.  Yikes.  But, in baking, as in life, we learn from our mistakes and soldier forward.  We learn from our mistakes and do better next time.  


This time I filled the cupcake liners less.  I used two spoonfuls the first time, so I figured I would use one spoonful this time.  The liners looked so empty with one little spoonful of batter in them that I caved and added another half of a spoonful.  DON'T DO THIS!  While the end result was certainly better than the first, they were still a far cry away from the perfectly heart shaped cupcakes floating around pinterest.

CLose, but still no cigar

Try, try again.  And the third time is always the charm...right? ...not right...completely wrong.  I only filled them with one spoonful of batter this time. Still not heart shaped.  Closer, yes, but still not quite it.

GAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

So do we try a fourth time?  No.  We give up.




Ohh, I'm sorry.  Did you think this was going to be some sort of underdog triumph story?  Poor little baker can't get her cupcakes to look like hearts, but she never ever gives up? Ya. No.  This isn't that story...


 After three attempted batches (failed batches) I have come to the conclusion that perhaps I need larger marbles to make a more distinct indent in the liners.  Only problem is, these marbles came from my mom's house and I have no desire to drive over there at this hour of the night begging for more marbles.  I would rather sleep. So, we give up.  Better yet, we give up and go to bed because we realize that without my solid 9 hours of sleep I might actually hurt someone in the morning.  We realize that these cupcakes are not worth losing my marbles over (see what I did there?).  So we sleep.  We don't stress the small stuff we can't control, and instead, sleep.  I (we) love sleep.  Hopefully my co-workers tomorrow will realize that even if the cupcakes don't look like love, they taste it <3


So, what's today's life lesson?  Is it to never, ever, ever give up?  Sorry Mr.Churchill, in some circumstances that is an excellent idea.  However this time we learned not to sweat the small stuff. to breathe, stretch, shake, let it go.  On to the next.  (My life lessons are usually influenced by pop songs).  At least they taste good!

The ADORABLE version Pinterest teased me with)

The closest I got....