A reprieve...

It started snowing Monday evening...it finally stopped this afternoon. I have shovelled a lot over the last 3 days and my back is telling me so! And I can't even describe it as shovelling, as that doesn't remove everything properly...so it was scraping. A lot of scraping. Imagine cleaning the ice off your car window, but the window is over 50' long and 4' wide!!!

My building is right beside another building of the same era, only it is owned and run by different folks than mine. And they obviously pay their resident manager more than I am paid, because they have the professionals come to remove the snow. And let me tell you, they know where the property line stops and starts!!! However, that doesn't stop them from pushing it all over to my side of the sidewalk, now does it?? Nor do they adhere to the "to the cement" clause of the bylaw. So, while I start shovelling at my front door and the snow is only a couple of inches deep, by the time I get to the end of the building, the snow is now a good foot, foot and a half deep and HEAVY! Just a tip, by the way...if you are out walking and you pass someone shovelling and working hard at it, don't say something stupid like "looks like hard work" or the likes...we have a weapon and usually enough snow to successfully hide a body for quite some time...don't piss us off!!! Just saying...

Made it to weight watchers and while I was feeling poo-pooey about another small gain this week, everyone started asking me how I exercise outside and how do I stay motivated. That helped my mood a bit, when I realized they were sincerely wondering how I did it. Quote Nike...just do it. Although I did bail on run club and boot camp so far this week, but that's more because I was working out a different way. And I seriously don't drive enough on the roads (and my winter tires are still in Mom's garage) to risk my life and others for a run or a workout.

Okay...I'm sitting here still sweating (changed out of everything when I came back inside) and now I'm starting to get a chill. I think it's time for a cup of tea and a snuggle under a blanket.

Stay warm,

Mid week

My aching back...Mother Nature has been very odd to Calgary this year. After all, we had to wait till the end of September for summer to show up and then no snow until November 15th?! What is really sad is I think she figured out she messed up and is trying to dump all of September, October and November's snow TODAY!! It took an hour to clean the walks last night...yes, I go at it with a scraper because I read the rules that say "to the cement" and tossing a bag of salt on it doesn't count! Happily, it snowed all night and all day again, so I got to go over the whole mess one more time. Felt like I did an hour of dead lifts, scraping the ice over and over and over again. Unfortunately, there is so much foot traffic downtown that as soon as someone walks on the snow, it fuses with the sidewalk and becomes one solid mass. Great cardio though!!!!

Had to drive in the storm last night to take Mom for a haircut. The funny part, after being stuck in traffic for an hour, and finally making our way to Rosanna's, Mom says "good thing you know where you're going"...trouble is I have never been to Rosanna's or even met the lady for that matter! Just really good at figuring out directions! But Mom's hair is all cleaned up and she looks good and feels good. Dropped her off and carefully made her way home. Between all my runs and travels and no snow, I am one of those morons who waited to put her snow tires on. Now I'll get to wait longer, as they say that it's now a two-week wait at most shops. I emailed a place today, so we'll see what they have to say.

Walked over the Running Room at lunch and bought a pair of trail runners, as I'm tired of slipping and sliding while winter training. But by the time I got home (holy wind chill!), and realized I had another hour's worth of shovelling ahead of me, I decided to skip run club tonight. I'll test the runners on Sunday.

My elf outfit arrived, for my stint as an elf for Chase the Elves at the end of the month. I guess what happens is a bunch of us elves head out, and then get chased by the runners, who try to catch us because we have raffle tickets to hand out! Sounds like a hoot, and I can't wait to go all in, as my outfit has a hat, bells, pointy shoes...hehehehe...go big or go home, right?

Dinner was a simple and warm bowl of cream of tomato soup and a warmed up piece of naan. I added diced tomatoes and dill to the soup to make it more of a meal, and to up the veggies. It was definitely a soup day, as I enjoyed the soup at work today "baked potato w/bacon"...basically a cream of potato soup, but very tasty all the same.

Okay...it's only 7:41 but I am so ready to hit the sack! Not sure how long I'll last...something about the cold and snow that makes you want to crawl under the covers and stay there.

Warm thoughts out to everyone,

Early day

I was up, showered, dressed and out the door by 6 this morning, and walking to work in the dark. Blah... But it did make the flashing red lights that much more noticable...hmmmmm...are they by my office?? A little closer...yup. That is never a good sign!!! As I approached the office, I could see fire boys climbing back into their big trucks (drat!) and driving away. Sadly, the office was declared safe to enter and I had to go to work after all. Double drat.

I went in at the crack of stupid so that I could leave at 2, in time to walk home, jump in my car, drive to Mom's, get back into the car, drive back downtown (yes, the doctor's office is about 3 blocks from work), park ($11 for ONE HOUR of parking!! And people ask why I walk!), convince Mom to walk slightly faster than a meander, only to have the doctor say "oh, I don't have enough time to do a full analysis for the referral to the place you've already been to, so you'll have to come back." Oy... We now get to play this game all over again next week, and in the meantime, I've got to somehow convince Mom to not eat anything (yes, that means jelly beans and chocolates) so I can take her for some blood work, to test her thyroid levels for the Synthroid prescription (which at least we walked away with). I miss our family doctor!

Lunch was leftover moussaka, which just gets better with age. Yum... It was also going to be supper till Mom decided she wanted a hamburger. Luckily we pass McD's on the way to her house, where she ate a cheeseburger (yes, the whole thing) and half a small thing of fries. That is huge for her!! Dropped Mom off, and returned for home. I had to try and winterize one of the windows for a tenant that wisely moved here from Africa and then can't figure out why she's cold all the time! I did ask, very good-natured mind you, whether she researched Canada before she chose it as home!! Explained that winter, especially by the mountains is COLD! Speaking of...here is comes. The rain has started, which is not a good sign, since that's supposed to be followed by snow. Again...thank goodness I walk to work! Although the 'birks may have to stay at home. I hate shoes...boo...

I am going to pack my running gear to work, since I'll miss boot camp waiting for Mom to get her hair done. I ran into "hot man" that I used to run with all the time (again...very happily married...dang it, aren't they all?) who reminded me that he hasn't seen me for a while, although he did say that I was looking good. Blush! Anyway, I've decided it's been too long since I've tackled the stairs, and snow will just add to the challenge...and if it's too snowy, I'll just run a loop.

Since dinner was a burger, my last piece of moussaka (all the rest went into the freezer last night) will be for lunch tomorrow.

Really, that's it for me. Nothing too exciting. Just another Monday.

Later,

Moussaka

But first...Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. O.M.G. - so.freaking.good! I am with Jaime though, and prefer cream cheese icing over the brown sugar icing the recipe calls for. Mrs. Hines helped out with that! Next time though, I'm going to make even more of the center stuff, so that the rolls are that much goo-ee-er. I do luvs me a good sticky bun!

Had a few too many last night (this made 2 trays) and found out that they just don't make good pre-run fuel. Oh, they're not bad...you just need to eat stuff from the other food groups as well!!! But so hard to resist!

I got up and met up with some running peeps down at Eau Claire this morning, but just could not wrap my head around doing a 7km long, slow run this morning. I guess after finishing 42.2, 7 just seems...short. So I decided to head out and do the Long Zoo route, after reading that the City was finally finished the River Walkway. Granted, they failed to mention that the 4 blocks between Centre Street and Langevin Bridge were still ripped to pieces and you had to run on either the narrow sidewalk or the road, but the rest of it is quite lovely, I will admit. There are wide sidewalks for runners/walkers and a separate path for those on wheels. It's brightly lit, there's benches, lounge chairs, promenades, decks overlooking the river. The only complaint I can think of is the recycled, broken glass in the walkway, while pretty, may prove to be very slippery with ice and snow. Guess we'll see what happens when it actually snows. Yes, it is November 14th in Calgary and we honestly haven't had the first snowfall of winter yet. It is scary late...

Sorry...gag moment...dude who has just spent the last 6 weeks of Amazing Race screaming at, belittling and basically calling his girlfriend stupid just proposed and the dumb bunny said yes. SERIOUSLY?!?! Some women make me shake my head.

Anyway, back to the program at hand. I treated today's run like a steady, just wanting to hit a good pace and maintaining it, so I ran it alone. I hadn't decided if I wanted to just do 7 or 10 or whatever, but I figured when I got tired, I'd stop. I ended up running a nice 7:37/km pace and came back over Prince's Island and finishing, oddly enough after 7.37 km. Funny. Had coffee with K. and G., after cheering on the two D's running the Last Chance Half. It is the last race of the season, other than the odd 10km fun runs, so a lot of Calgary runners partake. I think it sells out quite early. The Marathon Quest 250 dude was there as well...he has committed to running 250 marathons in 2010, to raise money for Right to Play. Amazing man, and outstanding cause.

After coffee and breakfast, I stopped at work to pick up and bring home my 10 year service award. I swear it's bigger than my sports car! I pushed it through the halls and downstairs at work (it only weighs 40 lbs, but it is the most awkward shape and no handles) and managed to get it into the car. The hike up the 3 flights up stairs was a treat, but Daddy didn't raise no girly-girl!! I will unpack and set it up later.

After loading the stereo into my house, I changed, grabbed a tray of cinnamon rolls and headed back down to Mom's. Turns out my cousins, who I haven't seen in about 20 years for one and 5-6 for the other, were in town and wanted to visit with Mom. Since Mom's memory isn't the best, both my brother and I thought it best if we were there too. Had a nice visit, shared my rolls (grudgingly...hehehe), and after cleaning up and running a load of dishes for Mom, came back home to start on my Moussaka, finally.

I sliced 3 eggplants, put some oil, S&P on them and roasted them in the oven, to help with the flavour base. I also roasted off about 4 little zucchinis too. Boiled the potatoes and once cool, sliced them off. In a pot, mixed onion, garlic, ground lamb, ground pork, crushed tomatoes, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, red wine, bay leaf and some more S&P. After letting it meld together, I did add a shot of w. sauce (so don't know how to spell it!) for depth. It was perfect. Lastly, I made the cheese sauce to go on top...a basic white sauce (butter, flour, cream) with a touch of nutmeg and a handful of shredded Kasseri (Greek sheep's milk cheese - YUM!) and Parmesan stirred in. Finally, mix in two egg yolks to help bind it all together and I am ready to put my Moussaka together.

Moussaka production line:

First layer: eggplant

Next layer of zucchini, meat sauce and then potatoes.

Finish with the last of the eggplant and then top with the cheese sauce.

Bake in a 350 oven for 45 minutes, or till the top is nice and golden. Let it sit for about 20 minutes to set up.

In a word...PERFECTION!!! Teamed with a simple Greek salad of feta, olives, cucumbers, green peppers and cherry tomatoes, evoo, lemon juice, spices and red wine vinegar.

I have a very happy, very full belly right now.


I've already packed up 6 foil containers with moussaka and they are in the freezer, waiting to be eaten another day. I have one piece for lunch tomorrow and one last piece for dinner tomorrow night.

I am a good cooker!

With that, I'm signing off. I have to get to work even earlier tomorrow so that I can leave at 2. I have to get my car, drive to Mom's (yes, again) and then back downtown to the doctors, to get her prescription refilled and a new referral to the Seniors Centre ("just call us back", my ass) and then take Mom home so I can return downtown. I had better make sure my gas tank is full!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Later,

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Jaime inspired me...I don't bake often, as that's usually a dangerous thing for a single woman who is constantly fighting weight demons to do, but the Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls sound far too good to resist!

The very easy yeast dough (nothing smells better than yeast, I tells ya!) is resting and doing its thing even as we type. Took all of 10 minutes to mix up.

And the pecans are gently toasting, so that they taste even more delicious. Mmmmm...toasty nuts.

Just went to give them a shake and stir, since I can just start to smell them. That's the sign when they're toasting nicely. I am notorious for putting nuts (or even other stuff) to toast and then walking away and getting preoccupied with something else. Adult ADD sucks! But I am fun to watch!

Thursday night at the Hitmen WHL game was fun, despite many of the fans walking in and saying they didn't know to bring food. We still managed to walk away with 6-8 large boxes full. All the food and money collected that day was going directly to the Veteran's food bank, sadly which is much needed. Breaks my heart! I was good at convincing some people into forking over cash (money is just as good as food, as many of the food banks have a better buying power than we do), although I was joking with the group leader that he should have put me by a beer stand. I'm really good at making people feel like heels for enjoying a beer while the old man who made it possible for him to enjoy said beer is languishing at home alone, hungry. How's that beer tasting now, dude??
:)

Our corporate mortal enemy was at the game as well (not sure if they were sponsoring something or what) but they MADE us change out of our Together is Amazing shirts, as they didn't want us "advertising" ourselves. Seriously?!?! You don't want us there, advertising that we're collecting food for hungry Canadians, and veterans to boot????? See...very good at the guilt thing!!! I don't care...I know who I work for, and am immensely proud of the awesome thing we are doing (well over a million pounds of food raised so far, and that is BEFORE Shaw and Campbells match), and I got a Hitmen t-shirt out of it.

Yesterday we took down the pyramid of food in our building's lobby and started packing up all the flats to go to the food bank. We wanted to make sure that they had the food for the weekend. Wish I had remembered my camera, as it was pretty impressive to see all this food lined up, waiting for the moving van to haul it all over.

It was a pretty quiet day at the office though, as many people took the day off for an extra long weekend. I was not one of them! Did whip over to WW, forgetting that I was wearing jeans...crap. Up again. Can I totally blame the jeans? Probably not. I need to sit down and focus! Although I already missed two of the three boot camps this week, due to scheduling and now that I have to take Mom for a haircut on Tuesday (she's forgotten how to get to the hairdresser...sigh), I'll most likely miss that class too. Need to come up with a back-up plan, since Josh only has the three classes a week this time around, rather than his usual five. I will be going for a run in the morning, and I think I'm going to do a nice 10km tempo. Just can't wrap my head around doing a 7km long slow run! Meanwhile, I came home and was a slug (last night's boot camp was changed to Wednesday, when I went to running clinic), enjoying black lentils in curry, naan and potato samosas. I was very full by the end, but full of carby goodness! Must be getting colder out.

Heading down to Mom's shortly today, as she's out of cat food, and while remembers how to get to the vet's, can't remember how to get home. Claims she ended up in downtown Calgary last time she tried...why am I just hearing about this stuff now?!

Dough is rising, so soon my house will be filled with the smell of fresh baked cinnamon rolls...and then I also got in the mood for Moussaka (our deli made it last week, and I thought (of course) I can do better!), so that will be whipped up later today. The ground lamb is thawed, I have many, many eggplants and zucchinis, potatoes and I'm making a real bechamel sauce for it...none of this low-fat stuff for me. I'll also pick up some freezer containers, so that I can divvy it up and have some ready for lunches/dinners in a hurry. Just realized that I should have picked up salad makings as well. Hmmm...guess it's a trip to the store for me. Maybe the Farmer's market instead. We'll see what Mom is in the mood for.

Later,

Lest we forget

For me, Remembrance Day sort of started last night at running club. Admittedly it was strange to show up for a run when there is no clinic, and therefore no distance or hills or tempo or speed work to be done. I could just show up and run...not sure how I felt about that. But we all showed anyway, bearing food items for the Veteran's Food Bank (Shaw will be collecting at tonight's Hitmen WHL hockey game). We then took off on mass and ran across Prince's Island to this point. A memorial set up to honour those soldiers lost during the war, many of whom are still buried overseas. Kind of brought them home this way. Almost 1,500 crosses line Memorial Drive (hence it's name) and where all of us runners stopped first for a minute of silence and quiet reflection, before heading off for a run.

source

Because I had wandered all the way to the end, I missed the group taking off, so ended up running on my own. I decided to stick to the main pathway (it is pitch black by 6:30 nowadays) and ran just over 4.5km in 32 minutes. Legs were a little tired from Tuesdays squat / burpie-a-thon festival at boot camp, but felt good at the same time. Ended the evening in our usual manner, hoisting a pint at the local pub and having an all-right (not stellar) turkey burger for supper. Good thing the Guinness was up to it's standards!

Got up this morning and decided that since I live so close, I had no excuse to miss the memorial at Central Memorial Park, where the Cenotaph and Eternal Flame are.
This park had sadly fallen into disrepair of the years, and had become a hang-out for drug-dealers, addicts, street people, skater kids, etc. But this year the city poured a lot of money into it, making it brighter (more lights = less places for drug dealers to hide and do their biz) and building up the gardens and pathways to make it more inviting for people to come down and enjoy. Hope it works.

Quite a lot of people came out for today's memorial, which was nice to see. And it was nice to see all the younger people there, not necessarily children bundled up and dragged out by their parents. However, someone needs to explain to the boys (and some men) that it is a sign of respect to remove your hat! It wasn't that cold out. Oh, and all the Crackberries and iPhones could have been left at home too...it was just an hour, people!!

The dignitaries made their speeches and then the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month hit. After silent reflection, Taps started. I don't care when, I don't care why...I hear the lone bugle and I lose it. While both of my grandfathers and one uncle served in the wars, and Mom's dad did pass away during (tuberculosis or mustard gas...it's up for debate), my family doesn't really have strong ties to the military, other than I am appreciative of the men and women who fought/fight for me to have the right to walk to a memorial on a bright November day and reflect the way I choose, not am dictated to.

After a little wandering (mainly into the sunshine to get warm), I left my poppy with all the others and headed for home. Almost lost it again though, when I witnessed a gentleman, probably my age, place his poppy, walk away a bit and then salute the Cenotaph. Tearing up just thinking about it now.

I was going to swing by Starbucks but decided to come home, have a coffee here and some eggs and toast (passed a breakfast place on the way that suddenly had me craving dippy eggs!) and then figure out the rest of my day. I am heading down to the Hitman game this afternoon to represent Shaw and help collect any food brought down to the game. All food collected today will go to the Veteran's Food Bank. Very sad that they fought for us, and now fight to not be hungry. Shame on us.

But HUGE shout out to the Shaw employees/friends/family and everyone, as we have surpassed one million pounds of food raised across Canada, and that is not yet including the match by Shaw and Campbell's (another 650,000 pounds!!). Awesome job, everyone. Together really is Amazing.

I need another cup of coffee to try and beat off this chill I have, and then make my dippy eggs. Hope everyone enjoys their day, wherever they are.

Later,

Not much to say...

Really not a lot to say tonight, but as always I've left this till late and should just go to bed. Of course, it doesn't hurt that my arms and shoulders are starting to seize from Boot Camp and it hurts to type!
:)


Maybe here is where I will live...if you dream it, you will be it.

Later,