bright star

bright star, would i were steadfast as thout art -
not in lone splendour hung a loft at night
and watching, with eternal lids apart,
like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
the moving waters at their priestlike task
of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
of snow upon the mountains and the moors -
no- yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
pillow'd upon my fair lovers ripening breasts
to feel forever it's soft fall and swell,
awake forever in a sweet unrest,
still - still to hear her tender taken breath,
and so live ever - or else swoon to death.

john keats

we felt like we could fly.

a little song for your monday listening pleasure.

warning - irresistible cinnamon rolls below

i have had a life long love affair with cinnamon rolls.  i mean, who could really resist?! they're warm, gooey, delish and make the entire house smell like cinnamon-spice goodness.  i have probably baked somewhere in the neighborhood of 308457 rolls while testing 34273 recipes (that's 9 rolls on average per roll.  check the math!) every time i come across a particularly excellent recipe i make a mental note to jot it down on a recipe card or flag the web page.  i somehow become so distracted while consuming those golden twisted rolls of deliciousness that i always (and i mean ALWAYS) forget. welll folks, not this time! this recipe from epicurious produced some pretty phenomenal cinnamon rolls.

prior to baking

post baking

i'm not particularly fond of extras on my cinnamon rolls (this recipe has a cream cheese icing and some add dried fruits/nuts to either the filling or the top).  i am, however, a huge fan of vanilla extract and add it to just about everything - including the dough for these rolls.  one of the best pieces of advice i have ever received (thanks mom!) regarding cinnamon rolls, is not to roll them too tightly when you are forming them.  this leaves little to no room for the rolls to expand, forcing the center of the spiral to explode from the top of the rolls.  i mean, sure, this isn't aesthetically pleasing... but more importantly it dries out the center of the spiral (which let's be honest, is the best part).

delicious roll, french press & rediscovering an old friend. 

nike women's half marathon

well now, what do we have here?  a NWM 1/2 in DC? yes, please! 

the Nike Women's Marathon started in 2004 and is held annually during the fall in san francisco, ca (a half marathon option is also offered). the race is one of the largest philanthropic races to date, with proceeds benefitting the Leukemia and Lymphona Society.  with such great response to the race over the last 18 years on the west coast (disclaimer: i can only assume.... i really haven't looked into an official reason for adding the DC 1/2 as that would just take too.much.effort... ya hear?), NWM has added an additional half marathon to take place in washington, dc in the spring of 2013. and this morning, registration opened for the random drawing to enter the race. sure, $160 is a little steep for a half marathon race entry fee, but the proceeds go to an incredible cause.  i'll know between december 10 - 14th if my entry was drawn at random. looks like i better start training! 

southern hospitality

ahhhh, richmond. capital of the south. land of southern hospitality.  and, according to my free cup with post-race beer, home of america's friendliest marathon.

a liar, i am not.  merica's friendliest marathon, ladies and gents.. 

this past weekend many displaced marathoners form the cancelled nyc marathon made their way down 95 S in order to put their hard work and training to use in rva.  apparently sports backers forgot their own motto and said runners had to pony up high-dollar, last minute race entry prices. now, i'm not saying it should have been free to come down and run.  nor do i claim to have any idea how NYRR is planning to compensate the runners, if at all.  i can't help but wonder: would it really have hurt to offer a discounted entry fee? apparently it would have and sports backers capitalized on the misfortune of hurricane sandy.  how's that for southern hospitality? 

okay, so the good ol' folks at sports backers didn't get the - hey we just got rocked by a hurricane and can't run this immensely important race we've been training our assess off for - memo, but a few other companies did. the fresh market, superstar pizza & carytown cupcakes graciously provided a pre-race, carb loading dinner  (organized and hosted by the lovely katherine - which you can read more about here) for the NYC marathoners.  what's that you say? oooohhhhhh, christine you only ran the 8k. yes, i'm well aware of that. remember - baby steps. 

dear friends + me with one squinty eye. awesome.

baby steps.  i will conquer a marathon in 2013. but for now it's nice to rediscover my stride & share post-race libations with my dear friends.

it's wednesday!

what's that you say? you need a wednesday pick-me-up?

head on over to cat bounce. this is easily the best thing on the interwebs.   

kitty close-up!

click, drag, release. 

au revoir, productivity.

note to self

find new job without the title "essential personnel".

that way i can weather the storm drinking bourbon & playing (and by playing let me be clear that i mean demolishing) my misfit friends in both scattergories and spades.

hey, sandy!

in the event that you live under a rock and haven't heard, there's a hurricane coming!! and her name is sandy.  and those of you who know me well (which let's face it... if you dont know me well you probably have no idea this blog exists), know of my slight obsession with pete & pete. every time i hear hurricane sandy this particular polaris starts to play in my head.  it's sort of like having my own personal theme song as i walk down the street.  although, if i had to choose a theme song it would probably be more along the lines of phantom of the opera... something about the organ blaring and announcing my presence in such a sinister way is intriguing.  i digress.  if you're in the mid atlantic area, stay safe.  and if you don't lose power, listen to the above song. reminisce on the awesomeness that is artie, the strongest man in the world. then find your nearest friend who owns the series (me!!) and come have a hurricane sandy party.

video killed the radio star

have you heard that every 1 hour spent watching the tele takes 22 minutes off of your life? yikes.  according to the british journal of sports medicine, that extra hour you spend watching criminal minds (because who can say no to shemar moore?) really is killing you. albeit slowly.

prior to having a cup o’ jo and listening to peter sagal blow my mind (you’ve done it again, wait wait!) i used my feminine wiles (aka threatening to become arguably the most annoying person on the planet until he conceded)  to convince a friend to trek up to harlem with me in search of the royal tenenbaums house.  he was totally game for the adventure and i didn't need to use my powers of coercion (i knew there was a reason we were friends).  we did minimal internet research (seriously, what can't you do with an iphone these days?) and found out that the E stops a mere two or three blocks from the intersection of 144^th and Convent – and it wasn’t much of a hunt at all.  still, it was a beautiful day and completely rewarding to find the house of my dreams.

house of my dreams

i wonder if it still has this wall paper?

wallpaper of my dreams

and now i cannot stop wondering how much of my life wes anderson is personally responsible for taking away i have lost watching wes' beautiful movies.  

man of my dreams 

so lets do some calculations.  If you lose 22 minutes of life for every 60 minutes of tv watched then you lose 0.36666666666667 minutes of life per 1 screen time minute. 

          Royal Tenenbaums - 110 minutes = 40.3667  minutes

          Moonrise Kingdom - 94 minutes = 34.4669 minutes
          The Fantastic Mr. Fox – 87 minutes = 31.9 minutes

          Rushmore – 93 minutes = 34.1 minutes

          The Life Aquatic – 118 minutes = 43.2667 minutes

          The Darjeeling Limited – 91 minutes = 33.3667 minutes

          Bottle Rocket -  91 minutes = 33.3667 minutes 

                                    Total = 250.8338 minutes or 4 hours and 11 minutes 

suddenly putting royal tenenbaums on prior to going to bed for years, seriously YEARS with #1 roomie, seems like a terrible idea.  say we watched it roughly 100x in 4.5 years (seeeerrrrious underestimate I might add…)? that's 4036.67 minutes or 2 days 19 hours and 16 minutes of life gone. poof.  thanks, wes anderson.  if you had made crappier movies I might live longer.

  

that same friend who trekked around manhattan with me said he remembered hearing that, conversely, for every mile spent running or walking you gained 1 minute back.  he's a lawyer, so he's got to be telling the truth, no? either way... i can find no proof of this in reputable sources.  (hey, JAMA - wanna give me moneys to look into this?! seriously, it would be a gooood investment. promise.)

stick 'em with the pointy end

for as long as i can remember i have hated needles.  don't believe me? just ask daddio about the time i had a splinter in the bottom of my foot and single handedly defeated 100 grown military men to escape certain death at the face of a needle... really.  i think he told them to let the splinter rot my foot off because i was acting like such a brat.

fast forward to today - i got my annual flu shot, and didn't even flinch.  luckily the lady at employee health remembers me has probably written a large highlighted note in my file reminding herself of my irrational panic attacks at the site of a needle coming towards my person. this isn't her first rodeo. she skillfully distracted me and managed to insert the vaccination without ever allowing me to see the needle.  kudos to you, flu shot giver.

what is it i do, you may ask? oh, i'm a nurse.  so it's safe to say that i stick it to 'em (ha!) on a daily basis.  and last year i was our unit peer vaccinator (meaning i gave everyone else their flu shots). all things considered, today was a considerable success.

are you there motivation? it's me, christine.

today i realized that i am no longer a runner.  i was, and want to be again, but currently i run almost never.  some of which is due to a lack of motivation and more of which is to do with frustration and pain related to an injury sustained this past spring.  having fully recovered, it's time to get my butt in gear.  

     step 1 - find local running group (check!) 

     step 2 - find and sign up for spring marathon (in the works)

     step 3 - find a suitable running shoe (the tricky part)

     step 4 - feet to pavement (or trail, or track, or treadmill... you get the point)

back to step 3. there are approximately 348,278,941,283 types of running shoes available.  of which i have found exactly 2 (YES TWO, ONLY TWO & NO MORE!) that my feet enjoy.  so far, anyway.  the new balance minimus WT10 and vibram fivefingers.  it's tough to find a good transition shoe, that will provide slightly more cushion for the longer mileage in my future (currently my runs are 2-6 miles and very infrequent). 

taking advantage of road runner sports and their 30 day wear-the-crap-out-of-it-and-return-it-if-you-dont-like-it policy, i recently tried the brooks pure connect. yowzers, i was not a fan.  although the shoe was incredibly light weight and had great breathable material, i found that the shoe kept my foot in a very uncomfortable position, there was too much arch support, and the toe bed was too narrow for my liking (really, what does the split toe groove do?). the sole of the shoe had already started to show serious signs of wear with light use.  needless to say, those shoes were returned.  and so the hunt continues.  

a dear friend, and superstar runner who logs some serious miles each week, recommended the saucony kinvaras.  running warehouse describes a medium toe bed and medium-high arch support, and states the most similar running shoe is the brooks pure connect.  time to find a store and try these guys out before ordering yet another pair.  not willing to give up on me - she called one of her other super-awesome lady runners who was on a similar search when she started running higher miles.  she, too, did not care for the pure connects or kinvaras.  she recommended the nike free 4.0 (and specifically NOT the nike free run).  i went through a few pairs but ultimately found that they were quite tight across the top of my foot and caused a lot of pain in my arches.  perhaps i was running in the wrong size, maybe with a size up these could be a nice balance between minimalist running and added cushion for lengthy runs.  ahhh, who knows.  for now, i'll keep running in my trusty minimus' and train for an 8k on november 10th.  i have to start somewhere, and might as well start small.  

hello, who is this?

who is this, you may ask? just a girl who's favorite dinner is chocolate milk and a grilled cheese sammich.  trying to find the motivation to start running again.  considering toilet training my cat ... i have a plan, but will she cooperate? probably not.  she's sort of snotty and selfish that way.  i'm doomed to a life (or another 10 years) of litter scooping... how delightful.  i read. a lot.  and have recently discovered that agatha christie books are a better version of murder, she wrote.  i never would have believed it to be true, but it is.  and luckily for me she wrote somewhere in the neighborhood of three thousand books.  goodbye 2012, if you need me i'll be in the hammock. wrapped in my warmest sweatshirt.  getting to know my main squeeze - hercule poirot.  i'm also working on being a better and more present friend, remembering that small and random acts of kindness really do mean the world.

and most importantly - i'm just a girl who was taught to answer the phone "hello, who is this?" you know, in those dark days before caller id.  and if i answer the phone preoccupied, my auto pilot kicks in with that response.  thank you, mum!

so, hello, who is this? i'd love to know.
christine