Geared Up & Broken Hearted

(Don’t worry, Whit and I didn’t break up.  You’ll see what broke my heart in a bit…)

I have never driven in snow slush. 

I never want to ever again.

Too bad it’s unavoidable.

It was insane yesterday.  Ok, insane driving wise, but otherwise started out as normal:

Honey is always around to observe supervise.  She wants to make sure that if it falls off the railing, she gets the leftovers.  If they don’t contain shards of glass of course.

I got a $25 gift certificate a while back for Marshalls so of course I went and spent it on some dishes.  Buy girl clothes?  Not this time…

I was in love with this plate for three reasons:

1. It’s a square bowl.  Is that an oxymoron?
2. It’s oven and freezer proof.  Hells yeah.
3. It’s a mini casserole dish.  Recipes to come…

But as much as I wanted to bake my oats in it Friday morning, I was in a hurry, so the microwave it was.  I loved that the bowl stayed cool enough for me to handle, even just after cooking.  Super freak’n plus.

I spent the majority of the morning on the desert roads but my heart was broken when I saw this.

What? How could my beautiful Wild Mustangs break my heart?

Because they had to resort to this:

They no longer than the space they used to to roam to warmer areas during the winter.  Instead, they’re subjected to the dangers of nearby roads/small highways, trucks/machinery driving around the turbines, generators that could short circuit and blow up, turbine blades thrown off the turbines…my list could go on.

I stared at them for a long time.  I’m used to seeing them in places like this, which is what I saw later:

But it’s so cold they can’t be there anymore…as much as I’m for alternative energy sources, I’m also an environmentalist and preservationist, so when nature is being taken away, it makes me upset…and makes me wonder what my kids are going to have to look at?  Do you ever think about these things when you’re out in nature, and see wild animals at their best?

Anyhow, I headed out into the canyons and made my way through the flooding, mud, slush and snow.  Did I mention wet clay?  Now that was terrifying!

By the time I got to my first point I was absolutely famished.  I didn’t realize I had gone almost 6 hours without eating anything and when you spend the majority of that time tensed up and jaw locked while driving, it drains you.

The Laughing Cow/Hummus/Veggie Sandwich with an orange didn’t do a damned thing so as much as I wanted to just eat my banana bread, I knew there wasn’t enough protein and ate my favorite Odwalla Bar instead:

Had to have some energy to hike up that hill (looks small and sad, but it’s long and steep; I swear)!  It was uber slippery and deep!  I may have slid on the way down…and realized that in the 1/2 hour I was gone, the car had slid almost 6 inches on the decline towards the ravine.  Yikes!

By the time I got home and finished work paperwork and emails, I realized how famished I was.  I dug into a piece of banana chocolate chip bread, then decided I was too tired to run, and ate some popcorn…and pb chex mix…and then the guilt ensued.  I’ll make another post about that this weekend…along with the stress that came from having to go out to dinner afterwards.

Whit came to town and we attended our First Friday Events, where they open up the galleries and the artists are there to talk to.  We walked around for a bit, met a local author, bought some Christmas presents, and then headed to the only Japanese restaurant in town: Kasagiri.

I ordered their Seaweed Soup that I had last time, and loved!  It’s seriously so much better than Miso Soup.  Every Japanese restaurant needs to have this!

I settled for my two favorite rolls: Cucumber Roll (ate 6 pieces)

And a Vegetable Roll (which sadly had no avocado…I need protein people!)  I ate 7 pieces out of 10.

I was telling Whit about how I don’t like Green Tea Ice Cream and he was flabbergasted, so he ordered some for dessert.  True to stand, I didn’t like this one either. Especially the mochi on the outside…not a fan.

I tried to give it a shot and ate 3 pieces, but as I didn’t like it, I let Whit finish it!

I was exhausted the rest of the night, especially after the adventurous driving I did through out the day so I allowed myself to sleep in this morning.  Oh 8am how glorious you are.

I putzed around for a bit before having a subpar breakfast of an apple, some naturally more pb and kashi h2h which I figured would be good for the 8 miler I had planned for the day.

I let the air warm up to 50*F and headed out the door! I was focusing really hard during this run not to run too fast to aggravate my knee.  It did the trick!  I ran 8.03 miles in 1:22 and oh boy was I sore and tight afterwards!  When I run slower my stride gets shorter than it already is and tightens up my hips…something I need to figure out to make better.  It certainly was gorgeous though:

As soon as I got home and cleaned up, I was ready for some food, as  my belly was scream’n for it!  I had about 2T left of pb in the jar and slammed it down with some oats, cinnamon and a banana.

Honey wanted part of the action.  No such luck.

I wanted my food dangit!

Now I’m off to the store to pick up the goods for my Blogger Cookie Exchange tomorrow!!!  Yay!!!  I hope they like what I have chosen!