Saturday, December 14, 2013

An adventure run at home

I had to run 15 miles on Thanksgiving weekend for my training, and Sam and Julia were nice enough to join me for most of it. We took an adventurous route that included running down (and then up) a huge hill and crossing a gigantic river:


Ok it wasn't actually gigantic. But it was fun!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Happy Birthday Mom!

It's my mom's birthday today, which is a great day for a birthday, 12/12. Last year was obviously better at 12/12/12, but this is pretty good too. Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Hannukah!

Happy belated Hannukah! We had a nice holiday, partly with my family and partly in our apartment and with friends. The funniest part was what happened to our candles. We had a couple of boxes of candles because we always buy too many when they're on sale. In retrospect, this was not our smartest decision, but we had been storing them in the cabinet over the stove. Here is what they looked like when we took them out of the box:


And a close-up:


So we were able to separate them and still use them, even though some were broken:


They actually looked pretty cool and people said we should do it on purpose and sell them in the future. Here are the nights I remembered to take pictures of:


Ok that one's not that pretty, but just wait.


The orange one was broken in half and I lit it in the middle. It was pretty epic and you can see it burned twice as tall because it had twice as much fuel.


You can also see a sneak preview if my candle color selections for the following nights. Here is a break to see our Hannukah presents:


I sewed Sam a sleep mask with help from my mom. Sam got me a necklace and some mesh laundry bags, both shown in this photo:


I also got him a pizza peel:


Some more candles:





And we also got some great presents from Sam's parents. For Sam:


A slow cooker! Already in use on vegetable soup. And for me, a winter bike helmet:


I hope everyone else had a nice Hannukah too!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

I got a new winter bike! And ran 16 miles!

It was a great day today, and busy. Sam and I ran (16 miles for me, 11 for him) and then we went and got me a new winter bike. I sold my old winter bike before we left for our trip, and I don't like to ride my good bike if it's below freezing (because the grease in the cables can freeze and get weird) or if I'm going to be in gross weather (for obvious maintenance reasons). So today we went to see a bike I found on craigslist, and it was better than it looked in the picture, and I got it! So now I'm ready to commute in worse wintery weather. Although I'm not really prepared for it emotionally, of course.

Here's my new bike:


It's white, not purple like my old winter bike, but that's ok. I'll need to get lights, fenders, and a new chain. I'm very glad that now I can take better care of my good bike!