Running Divas Giveaway!!!

The winner of the Running Divas tank and shorts is!!!

Nicole with the comment:

I'm following their FB

Congrats! Please contact me within 48 hours at soljerster at gmail dot com with your address so I can get this out to you!

Thank you to all that entered and shared!! Hang tight because I will be having another giveaway here VERY soon!!! 

Need the "must have" running tunes!!!

So my readers know that my computer died. Had to be replaced.

What my readers don't know is that my external hard drive hasn't been hooked up in almost 3 years.

Or that my iTunes is now completely brand new.

Which means I almost lost about a grand worth of music.

I say ALMOST because this time I was smart enough to move it to my iPod. I think I had this impending feel of doom and that is what made me decide to it. Mind you, this was THREE years worth of music I have downloaded.

Three days after I did this...computer died.

Epic. Sad. Face.

So with me getting back into running, I need tunes. I used to have an iPod Nano but I sold it when I got my Classic. Now...anyone who has a classic can attest that this thing is MASSIVELY huge and heavy. I didn't even think that I could use an armband with it. I just figured it was too big. Yeah I was wrong! You CAN use an armband with this hunk of metal. (And I strongly advice it because running with it in your front pocket of your jacket is really really really dumb. Not only will you get an iPod bruise on your hip/leg BUT you run the risk of it flying out of your unzipped pocket and hitting the ground WHILE ripping your earbuds out of your ears. True Story.) So I checked the prices at Target one day and was like Umm...no. The armband was 30$ but an iPod Shuffle is only 46$? And I can clip it onto my shirt?? WHAT?!? Since when were the iPod Shuffles under 100$?? Can you tell I do NOT keep up with Apple prices in the slighest?

Ain't it cute? (Ignore the extremely unfeminine hand and the crap on the floor...this is Other Chef's truck.

Now I am sure that I can somehow move my music from my Classic to my new iTunes and onto my Shuffle but dear God, that sounds like a heck of a lot of work. Not to mention that Other Chef came back from a deployment with 3 500GB externals filled with music. So help me fill this thing up with the "must haves" of working out!!

Obsession...

Coffee pot brewing its first pot this morning!

I used to have an obsession with coffee. Well let me rephrase that, not just coffee but Starbucks to be exact. In high school I used to be go Arabica (a coffee place that used to be on the East Coast) every morning. When we were transferred to WA, my obsession only got worse. There is literally (just looked this up so no joke) 10 Starbucks within a 2.5 mile radius of my home. The closest is about a minutes drive from my driveway to their drive thru. I have to pass it everyday when I leave my house. EVERY. DAY! Then I read about how many calories were in my favorite coffee.

That's when the brakes screeched on my obsession.

525 calories in my favorite coffee. Holy. Jeez. WOW.

Since I am working out and trying to get back to my prebaby weight (yes I realize he's 6 but whatevs) I am limited to 1300 calories a day. Working out obviously gains me more but yeah...1300. So one coffee, BEFORE breakfast, leaves me with 775 calories for the rest of the day. NO WAY.

Now I homebrew. I have been giving my coffee pot a massive workout. I am actually waiting for the day that I press brew and nothing happens. You will all hear a massive scream from your various points around the world. Never fear. That is just me having a meltdown because my favorite ever kitchen appliance has finally died. (This things going on 7 years old...its coming!)

What is your obsession food or drink related?

Pssst....

Okay, I was going to hold this in until I started the training BUT....


My Friend N and I are running the St Paddy's Day 5k this year!!!

I am so excited. This is my first official 5k. I registered already and am ready to go! I start training on Monday and man am I excited. I mean nervous. I mean ecstatic. I mean...AHHHHH! I can't wait! And to be able to do this with someone who has become so close to me...score! Main (well used to be now) Chef will be with the kids while we do it. When we asked if he wanted to go to too he said "Nah, I run triple marathons. In under an hour. On my video games." Really?? *rolls eyes*

 Its downtown, starts at 7am....

Dang. I am going to be before 530am and it won't be for shopping.

:-P

Thanksgiving post!

So it pains me to say this BUT every year for the last 7 years, when I made Thanksgiving dinner it was normally just one of those precooked dinners that you get from Safeway. But to anyone that has been following my blog, you know that I also just recently started cooking and trying to expand my skills. Well this year, I decided to cook my own dinner...all of it. And so I did.

The turkey was going to be my hardest challenge. I have never cooked one before. I was horrified thinking that I was going to screw it up and all of us would end up with food poisioning (yes, worst case scenario always in my head!!!). I didn't know what brining was so I didn't even bother to do that but I did find a link on PW's site that I did follow (which can be found here ). I didn't stuff my turkey either. My grandmother used to do that all the time and ugh, I hate mushy stuffing. So no go on this one! The only spices I used were kosher salt, pepper and stuffed that thing full of minced garlic. I used so much in fact, I was being asked how much did I use cause the smell was strong. Meh, whatever. It came out DELICIOUS! When I had to baste it, like she says with the butter, I used a stick of butter with lemon juice. Man, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

It started like this....

And then to this....

And then this!!!

I also made some DELICIOUS green bean casserole (my secret is using cans of cream of mushroom AND chicken...delicious), Main Cook made some delicious sweet potatoes (recipe WILL be coming soon), mashed potatoes, Turkey Stuffing, Cranberry sauce (just out of can, nothing special), turkey gravy (out of jar, again, nothing special) and my pumpkin pie.

My very first EVER homemade pumpkin pie...still working on the crust!

Dinner...was..sooo...good! And the good news is...no one was sick or got sick and everyone walked away from the table stuffed to the gills. That my friend is awesome!

Thanksgiving Dinner with some Moscato...ready to eat!!

Running Divas Review and Giveaway!!

So I got my computer the other day...back joining the land of the interwebz. Honestly, you never really realize how much you miss having your own computer until you are having to share. Sucks. Majorly.

Thanksgiving came and went, man was it a good time (I will post about that in a seperate post). Day before Thanksgiving though...I got a box in the mail. It was from Running Divas who was kind enough to send me some items to giveaway!!

I took the items out of the box and was instantly impressed with how lightweight AND soft they were. Seriously. I have never felt something this soft before (without using a ton of fabric softener and then you run the risk of feeling that nasty softener feel...yuck). The other thing that caught my eye was how cute the sayings were. The long sleeve brown tee says "Mile after Mile after Mile, etc" all the way down the side and on the back it says "Marathon is a concept by which we measure pain". And the cool thing about the sayings is that you can customize it. Anything you want on any piece of clothing, you can get. How cool is that?  Marc and Aeron did a great job with these items and I can't wait to share them with you!

These are the two pieces that I am giving away:

You know you want them! The back of the tank says "its who we are its what we do"

Here's what you do!!

1. Follow my blog and comment that you did! (1 entry)

2. Follow Running Divas Facebook Page and comment that you did, tell them I sent you!(1 entry)

3. Share this giveaway on your blog, Facebook or by Twitter (possible 3 entries) and comment you did.

Make sure you do one comment for each thing that you do!! Thanks!

This giveaway will close on the 9th at 10AM. Will mail the item priority! I will be using Random.org to pick a winner!!

Good luck and I can't wait to see who the winner is!!! 

Quick Post!

My new computer is in and I am IN LOVE! I am about to head out to go eat dinner so be looking out for a new blog entry (longer) later tonight!! Giveaway is being set up tomorrow!! WOOT!