Archive for November, 2008

Yes, you read that correctly. I am training for a triathlon.  Me, the person who has never run in her life.  (Ok, there was that one time I was trying to catch a train in Germany with 3 other people and two children, but the details are really fuzzy and I’m pretty sure I lost consciousness so it doesn’t count.)  Notice I didn’t say WHEN I’d be doing the triathlon, but I am going to start training.  I”ve already recruited one victim friend, yay Kim!!! and I’m hoping that I can entice some others…any takers?  If you want to sign on to just do the training, that’s ok too.

There is a sprint distance (an all woman event) in the summer, which might be doable, but realistically, I am looking at next fall or possibly the following summer.  I need to get in serious shape before, and of course for me that means visiting at least 45 doctors for clearance.  I found a good resource online, but I’m still looking for other training plans and information.  Please share if you know of any.

There are many levels of triathlons — in case you don’t know much about them (I didn’t) here’s the dirt:

So the sprint distance will be my first foray into the world of triathlons.  At. Some. Point.  The first thing I need to do is set a training plan (and stick to it as much as possible). I’m working on setting that schedule soon.  What is it they say about habits?  They take 21 days to set?  That seems like a long time to me.  I was kind of hoping that it would just happen over a week, but I don’t think I’m that lucky.

The next thing I need to do is buy a good bike. I have some time to think about this, since I won’t be biking outside in the winter (me + shoes + ice = bad, I can’t imagine me + bike + ice).  The fitness center I go to has a good selection of treadmills, bikes and the devil incarnate aka the elliptical.  (HOW?? WHY??) so I will be able to use the bikes there as well as the pool.  We have a treadmill at home that’s actually being used as something other than a cat bed, so as long as I can keep that up, I’ll be ok.  The problem is that I prefer to exercise in the morning, at least the treadmill part, but it’s been so cold in the morning (and I’ve been up way too late (reading, watching tv, blogging, chatting, working on secret photo projects) that I haven’t been walking in the mornings.

Ok, I’m going to get some spaghetti sauce going in the CrockPot and then we’re heading out with Jason to see the new Bond movie!

Ciao!

This weekend my car hit a milestone…passing 100,000 miles. WOOHOO!!

Of course I documented the occasion, well not me.  I was driving.  Jacqi took the photos. Oh that’s my new ipod nano –with the really archaic set up. My car is is 2003 model and doesn’t have an input jack so I need to use a cassette tape to play my ipod in the car.

On November 1, we went to our friend Kate’s recent birthday extravaganza at a Polish restaurant.  I don’t have any photos of food…sorry, but here are some other fun photos.

I had probably the best pierogies that I’ve ever had there.  They were my favorite…potato.  We also had plum, which were terrific.  I’ve always been afraid of sweet pierogi, but they were delicious. (We had blueberry last time and those were equally good!)

I’ve had a really busy week, so I’ve been slacking on the blog postings.  I’m going to try to catch up on the last 10 days of information.

Starting with Halloween – It was a beautiful night, but we still got ZERO trick or treaters.  It was a good thing I bought a lot of candy I don’t like, aside from the 2 bags of Take5 bars that I sent to various children (along with the obligatory Halloween books)…oh ok we ate a few of them.  SO good!!

Here are some photos of Zoe and her friend Hannah from Halloween.

Here’s another recipe that we make fairly regularly.  This is also one of my mother-in-law’s recipes.  I’ve made it on the stove top and in the crock pot when I’m in a time crunch, but I prefer to make it on the stove. This makes 4-5 servings.

One pack of pork tenderloin (approx 2 lbs) remove silver skin and cut into 3 inch pieces.
5 strips of bacon – diced
3T olive oil
1 large or 2 small onions – diced
1 jar of red pimentos – diced
1 square of concentrated ham stock (Caldo de Jamon)
1t Adobe seasoning
1 packet of Accent flavoring
2 or 3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Cilantro for garnish

Heat oil in a deep pan and cook bacon until crispy, then remove bacon from the pan.

Add the pork tenderloin pieces and sear on all sides – remove pork from pan.

Add the bacon, onions, pimentos, ham stock, Accent, Worcestershire, Adobe seasoning and cook until the onions are tender. (5 minutes)

Add the pork back to the pan and add enough water to cover the meat halfway.  Let the mixture come to a boil.

Cover and simmer on low heat for 45 minutes to an hour. (I will add water periodically because I like to have a decent amount of sauce left over)

Serve with white rice, arroz con gandules, egg noodles or mashed potatoes.