Week in recap, return to running and miscellaneous stuff...

Friday was fun...my company usually gets into Halloween, big time. Which is funny, because when I first started with them 10.5 years ago, I was one of a handful of people who dressed up each year. Then the floor/department competitions started and it all went CRAZY!


Halloween 2006...We did a Tim Burton theme...I'm the Case Worker from Beetlejuice.




Halloween 2007...we decided to decorate as Christmas (really?!?), so, of course, I decide to be a Christmas present...a Barbie...in a box. I lost best costume to some chick with rubber snakes in her hair...did the judges not see that I was IN.A.FREAKING.BOX?!



Halloween 2008...our first year doing a Haunted House, complete with a Thriller Zombie Dance. This is the year we won best team and best area decorations.



Halloween 2009...continuing with the Haunted House, we did it with a Fairy Tale theme...I'm rocking the cradle...hehehe...note the glow in the dark zombie eyes. You can find a lot of stuff on the Internet!!


This year, it was decided (by survey) that Halloween was getting a tad out of control, as many departments would work for months (yes, months) on costumes and decorations and were at the office till midnight the night before...all for one day of fun. So this year, we had a Halloween Bash in the main lobby instead. Dress up if you wanted to (and many did) and decorate if you wanted to (didn't go around to see) but we (the committee) would handle games, candy, music, prizes and, of course, a Haunted House. We did a pretty good job, we think, except we learned that all the lights couldn't be shut off, so it wasn't as dark and spooky as it could be. We know for next year now.
During the day, I was Sue Sylvester from Glee (forgot my camera at home)...

And during the Bash, I spent my time running around, making grown-ups scream like little girls! Good times!!!

All proceeds (food and money) for an iPad prize went to our Together is Amazing food bank campaign, and I think was hugely successful. We'll have to wait to hear what people thought of the new format and see if we'll do the same thing next year. I still had fun.

Came home to find a lump in my bed...whatever is it???

It's George, thinking he's a wild, jungle kitty, hiding in a cave...

Finally got my precious Gold card from Starbucks...yes, I spend that much money! Where's your Gold card, Jamie?! LOL!

Lined up my marathon bling...Toronto definitely wins, hands down! I weighed it, and it does come in at one pound, exactly. Calgary (the middle one) is a belt buckle, because it was always known as the Stampede Marathon, before it was moved to May. And Vancouver was my first. I'm waiting on a display rack I ordered this week, so that I can proudly display my bling, rather than tossing it on a desk or in a drawer.

After meeting up with H-woman Friday night, we hit up a local pub for beers and burgers. Okay, I had a burger (yummo) and H-woman had a steak salad. But I did also have a pint...came home with a headache though, that nagged me all day Saturday as well. Napping and Advil didn't really make it go away, so I had a very low-key day. After all, I wanted to return to running on Sunday.

Earlier this week, I decided to try the Epicure French Onion soup mix...I tried and really like the Seafood Chowder, so thought, how can they mess up this one?? First off, let me state that I LOVE Epicure and almost everything we sell. But man, did they mess up with the French Onion soup...which is a classic in it's simplicity...onions, beef stock, red wine. Top with cheesy toast and voila! Our soup was yellow...icky, turmeric yellow. What the????? Okay...I decided not to judge it on colour, but on taste...patooey is all I have to say! I had one spoonful and dumped the rest of the pot down the sink. However, I was still craving French Onion soup, so I made some from scratch yesterday...with onions (one white, one yellow, one red) that I fried up till they were a brown, gooey mass, beef stock and my Meritage red wine. Toast with Swiss Gruyere and another type of Swiss cheese (I eat that on the side because there is nothing more foul than soggy bread) and a Caesar salad to up the vegetables. I am a good cooker!

Met up with a few ladies from marathon clinic (and boot camp) this morning and decided to head out for a "nice, slow 10km"...after all, I'm just two weeks off finishing a marathon, M. is recovering from a stress fracture that has kept her from running for the past 3 months, and the other M. has had plantar issues for weeks. Well...the best laid plans, right? We headed out with K. (my former 5:45 pacer) and another lady and found ourselves pushing our pace quite quickly at 7:15-7:23...just for comparison, for a 5 hour finish, our Sunday slow pace was 8! I joked with K. (who stated several times that she wanted to run slow) that she was setting the pace (she was in front) and we were all struggling to keep up! She and the other lady turned back early (they wanted to do a set of stairs) so myself and the M's continued on and slowed down our pace...a bit. We finished (despite 6:58 showing up on Mr. Garmin) 10.29km at an average pace of 7:35, which while faster than we wanted, still felt good for all three of us. After a cup of coffee and a breakfast wrap, I came home to this sight...queen sized bed and they have to snuggle on my top! Awwwww...


Enjoying some leftovers (OMGee...so very good the next day!) and the Amazing Race. Hope you all had a great weekend and have an awesome week ahead (supposed to hit +20 in Calgary by Thursday...only took till November for us to get a summer.

Happy Halloween

BOO!