What's In My Bag

What's in my bag? Lots of proof that I'm a super-nerd.

Two 110 critter cams
Superheadz Blue Ribbon camera
Spare 35mm film
Filofax (Mode)
A River Runs Through It (This month's book-to-movie club selection)
Zenni glasses cleaning cloth
Keys
Sinus Buster (aka, the best nasal spray, ever)
Saline nasal spray
Lubriderm
Bach Rescue Remedy Pastilles
Tiger Balm
Wallet
iPod Touch
Cell phone
Sunglasses
Umbrella

My First Half Marathon!

Back in the spring, I read The First 20 Minutes and was inspired to run more. I'd been running short distances fairly regularly, basically following Couch to 5k. The book somehow pushed me from that, to deciding that I wanted to run a half marathon. I found the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon and was so excited about it that I managed to convince my friend, Erin, that we should do it. I mean, it's a race through Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios that ends in EPCOT during the middle of the night! (To put this change in attitude in perspective, she asked me to do it as a relay last year, and I thought that was too far!)

We signed up after one short (5 mile) test walk. I sought advice from running friends and a couple of half marathon books (Half-Marathon and Half Marathon Roadmap). With all of that, we cobbled together a plan and got to it.

Towards the end of training, I was really worried about it. I admittedly slacked off on my maintenance runs and was concerned about the required 16 minute/mile pace. I kept having visions of Mickey Mouse scooping me up off the track and throwing me in Disney jail.

But we stuck to it, and last night, we did it! We even beat our own expected time! We thought we would do 15 minute miles, but we narrowly beat that to finish in 3:14:40. And it was a crazy about of fun.


Me, ready to go

We met up in a sea of 14,000 runners and waited around for the start.


The starting line

There were characters and music and such all along the way.


Our only character photo op during the race

Our favorite part of the course was the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights in Hollywood Studios around mile 10. Luckily, I had the good sense to flip the camera to camcorder and record it!



We apparently looked insane by the end, but we did it, dammit!



We got our medals, our free bags full of sangria, our snack boxes, bottles of water, bought some delicious Yum Yum cupcakes, and had a midnight picnic in front of The Land. We road a couple of rides, ate some Food & Wine Festival food, and finally headed back to our hotels at 4 AM!

I'm still waiting for the official photos to be posted, so hopefully there will be more to come!

No Poo, Take Two

(In beginning to type this post, our cat Romp walked across my laptop. She left me the message "666". Interesting...)

Almost a year ago, I decided to try going "No Poo" after reading about it all over the interwebs. I lasted about two weeks before my oily, grimy face sent me running in search of shampoo.

Recently, I read a post on Our Little Apartment about "No Poo" and was intrigued by the addition of tea tree oil to the routine. So randomly one day last month, I swapped my shampoo for some baking soda and tea tree oil and my conditioner for some diluted apple cider vinegar.

And I was pretty stoked on it for a while. So stoked in fact, that I took silly self-portraits over the course of the first couple of weeks to document the journey.



And now, four weeks later, I've experimented with different ratios of baking soda to tea tree oil to water; used more and less apple cider vinegar; and rinsed my hair for longer and shorter periods of time. No matter what I do, my hair feels both too clean and too dirty at the same time. And overall, it just feels super gross.

I thought we could be friends, No Poo. I really wanted it to work out, but back to the shampoo I go.

World Vegan Day

Today is World Vegan Day and the start of World Vegan Month! In the spirit of celebrating delicious, healthy food, I thought I would share three of my favorite inspirational, veggie-powered ladies!

1. Kris Carr. I first read Crazy Sext Diet a couple of months ago and have been stoked on it ever since. She has such a fun spirit and contagious level of excitement about what she's doing! I just got her cookbook, Crazy Sexy Kitchen and I can't wait to try it!


2. Alicia Silverstone. A friend told me about The Kind Diet when it came out, and I remember thinking, "What? Cher has a cookbook?" But I knew she had long been an animal rights activist, so I thought I would check it out. While the ingredients in her cooking aren't always readily available, I'm really excited by what she's doing. I can't wait for her two new books in the next couple of years.


3. Mayim Bialik. Again, my reaction to learning about this PETA ad was, "Wait, Blossom has a PhD and she's vegan?" I loved this PETA ad, so I started reading some of the things she posts online and I'm excited to see what she does next. I'll certainly add her cookbook to my shelves next year.


I'll be sharing more of my favorite vegan goodies as the month goes on. Stay tuned!

Welcome & Happy Halloween!

Is there a better way to start a new blog than with Halloween food? I think not. For dinner tonight, I made Jack-o-Lantern Turnovers (modified to be vegetarian based on this recipe). Cutting faces out of biscuits was not as easy as it seemed...

Luckily, they turned out spooky anyway!



Have a great Halloween, everyone!!!