The life of a dog

It's the holiday season. Here in California, the leaves are falling from the trees and it's turned brisk. That doesn't bother Max at all, he loves to go for walks! One Sunday we took a walk downtown to go watch the San Jose Holiday Parade. It was a gorgeous day and we had a lot of fun. Max was trying to look and smell everything at once.

Oh look, a pole!

Oh look, another pole!

Mmmm...ivy, I love this stuff!

Max is pretty good walking on a leash. He gets a little excited and wants to sprint right from the start but he slows down once he realizes that he gets to smell and pee on everything. Ah, the life of a dog!

Food, glorious food!

Some of you may have noticed that I love food. I love savoring flavors on my tongue. I love to cook and I love cooking utensils and new pots and going grocery shopping.

This weekend, although productive, wasn't too exciting. There was the Friday night laundry, Saturday morning run and the putzing around/reading Twilight that evening. This morning I met a friend for crepes and hit the farmers market then did some gardening. Not a whole lot of gourmet cooking. Except I did prep for the gravy for Thanksgiving. I baked some turkey legs/wings/necks with some carrots/garlic/onions/celery and then boiled it all down into stock for the gravy. Max will get the meat parts with his dinners for the next few days.

My whole point is that because I live such an exciting life, I want to tell you about a meal that I had recently that was divine. And my beloved husband, Aaron, made it. He found a recipe for carbonara that Rachael Ray makes for her husband. You can find it here.



Here he is, tossing the egg in with the hot pasta.

Beautiful Carbonara

Look how pretty, with my cute plates and the Boudin bread and salad. We cooked up some shrimp separately because the pancetta wasn't enough protein. And because shrimp are good. Especially when cooked with butter and garlic. Now look at the fullness of the pasta pan. You should have seen it shortly thereafter. Tina and her boyfriend came home from the gym - a little late and that's why we didn't set the table for them. Between the four of us we pretty much killed the whole thing. Even the salad. I think there was a piece of bread left. Obviously, I'm not the only one at my house that loves to eat!!

Running...

I'm going to repeat part of what I wrote in my training blog for TNT - because it says what I want to say....

I know, I know, it's been a while. I had a real tough time for the past couple of weeks, but I'm over the hump. I know I can do it and I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to finish in 2 hours. Now, if I don't make that time, I'm in for a lot of ribbing, I know. One of my friends even told me that he wanted his donation back if I didn't beat his time of 2:08. Most of you who read this probably know me pretty well. I'm pretty competitive. Okay, REALLY competitive. I know it and most of the time I'm okay with it, except when it gets me in trouble. However, assuming that my race in 2 weeks mirrors my run on Saturday, I am set. We ran 12.5 miles. I finished it in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Before this weekend, I had never run farther than just over 8 miles. And our run had several more hills than I'll have to run in our race, although we didn't run the course in its entirety. AND, I caught up to the guys that were marking the course, so I had to slow down and wait for them to finish the course in order to finish! Although I was sore after the run, I was fine. Well, I could have eaten one of the bison that we saw in Golden Gate Park, but I was mostly fine. I took off my shoes and waded into the bay so I could "ice" my legs. It was heavenly.

Now I'm into the "tapering" portion of my training. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but I haven't run since Saturday. No yoga even. My foot has been killing me. I went to the Chiro yesterday and although they beat me up pretty good, my foot still hurts. And get this...it feels best in high heels. Weird. I have been a bad girl though and I haven't used the dreaded foam roller (that reminds me of the Princess Bride!) since Saturday night. Tonight, for sure. I might try running too. Stupid feet.

On a different note, Aaron had 2 wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. Poor guy. He looks like a lopsided chipmunk because one side is more swollen than the other. I'd post a photo but he'd probably be unhappy about that.