fat (wo)man in a little coat

Yeah, the title’s from Tommy Boy.  Shameless ripoff, right?  Well, it’s exactly how I felt at the running store last weekend.

YES.  RUNNING STORE.

A little history: for those of you who don’t know, my friend Laura convinced me to run the 500 Festival Mini Marathon this year.  After a lot of cajoling, convincing, and positive reinforcement, I agreed.  And as January started to coast by in ice-covered glory, I decided it was time to get some gear.

My first (ever!) trip to the running store started out great.  The very helpful folks put me on a treadmill to check my stride (turns out I’m a pretty straightforward runner — who knew?), got me hooked up with some great shoes, and recommended some accessories.  But then, when I decided to splurge on a running outfit, I realized that I was at least six sizes larger than the biggest women’s gear they stocked.

Fat (wo)man in a little coat…

Now, I understand that you want to cater to your core audience.  I’m very certain that the vast majority of runners that frequent this store are much, much smaller than I am.  I’m a big girl, and I know this — hence the motivation to, you know, RUN.  Vicious circle, isn’t it?

Not knowing where to turn, I asked my aforementioned friend what she would recommend.  And lo and behold, I received an incredible amount of responses from runners who had the same problems.  I was able to generate a shopping list online from places that cater to larger athletes.  And you know what?  I bet those places make a KILLING.  Note to neighborhood running store: YOU ARE MISSING OUT.

I’m waiting on my new gear to arrive and getting ready to start a training program on Jan 20th.  I have no idea what to expect, but at least I’ll be wearing a coat that fits!

it slices! it dices! it juliennes!

Those of you who know me well know that I cannot cook.  As in burning water, out-of-a-box, drive-through-window CANNOT MAKE FOOD.

One of my resolutions this year is to start using the kitchen for more than a place to store my beer and Eggo waffles.  In that vein, I’ve started accumulating things that one might need in order to make meals, such as pots, pans, spatulas and even measuring cups.  The crowning achievement, however, was over Christmas when I received… wait for it… A Cuisinart food processor and mandolin slicer.

And now I’m the Barefoot Freaking Contessa.

In the past few days, I’ve made (not from a box or a can, but actually PIECED TOGETHER FROM SCRATCH): broccoli/cauliflower soup, aloo gobi, poppy cheddar seed crackers, roasted red pepper and feta spread, falafel, tzatziki, vegan chocolate cupcakes and lasagna.   I don’t know what kind of light bulb finally went off in my head, but there’s just this feeling of accomplishment you get from pulling a dish out of the oven that originated in your brain, not a plastic container.

Someone should have told me about this before I spent the better part of my twenties living on Spaghettios and Fudgesicles.

grinchy mcgrincherson

Bah, humbug.

I have NOT gotten into the Giftmas spirit this year.  In fact, today was the first day that I bought anything for anyone in my family (online, no less), and honestly?  I’m nearing the point where I may do what I’ve never done before… and just get gift cards.  I strained my back at practice, so getting in my car and braving the traffic isn’t happening any time soon.  I’m giving the holidays a big fat ‘meh’ this season.

I don’t know what’s different this year.  All I know is I’m tired of it already.

a stopwatch, a whistle and a smile

Last night, I coached my first official roller derby practice.

No, I’m not giving up my role as a skater – I like hitting people way too much to give up now.   Instead, our league is trying out a coaching by committee concept.  And I really love it!  About a half-dozen of us are alternating running practices.  It’s teaching us to respond and react to different types of direction, as well as highlighting the different skill sets of the committee coaches.

Me?  I’m not a hardass.  I love strenuous workouts, but I don’t love yelling.  I’m a firm believer in the ‘catching more peas flies (thanks, Jason) with honey than you do with vinegar’ mantra.  So my first practice last night focused on drills that had an element of humor to them.  On a blustery, cold, rainy, no-one-really-wanted-to-be-there night, I think it worked out pretty well.

Our last activity of the evening (before core and stretching) was Queen of the Rink.  Each skater for themselves.  Knock a skater out of bounds or on the ground, and they’re out.  (legal hits only, of course. ) Last person standing wins.  I was feeling SO good about myself, having weathered a couple of awesome hits – and then a can-opener type jab to my chest completely laid me out.   

Note to self:  when you feel yourself getting cocky, BEND YOUR KNEES.  Because at that point, someone’s gunning for you.

$40 worth of cheese, and other thoughts

This morning, we ventured out through the slick, snow-covered streets (not hyperbole; we didn’t see a single plow or salt truck on our trip) to the Indy Winter Farmer’s Market.  I figured it would be pretty sparse: a few vendors, a random sampling of hippies and hipsters… MAN, was I surprised.

We drove up to the market (25th/Central, in the old architectural salvage building) and could barely even find a parking spot.  The entire place was PACKED.  Families young and old pushing their way past tables with customers lined up three and four deep,  almost two dozen vendors of all kinds, fresh pastries from Rene’s and coffee from Hubbard & Cravens, and an overall feeling of “hey, look at all these people!” It was pretty refreshing.

We purchased some Amish cheese from Sunset Acres, some non-HFCS ketchup from Local Folks Foods, some chocolate from Endangered Species, some Jezebel spread from Country Mouse City Mouse… and the best score of the morning?  Capriole Goat Cheese.  Not only were they generous with their tasting samples, but every single thing we tried was amazing.   Thus, the title of this post.

We’ll definitely be back through the winter, and they’ve secured the space through April – just long enough to cover until the green markets start back up in earnest.

the lowdown

so what have I been up to for the past, oh, fourteen months or so?  Nothing that would excuse my lack of blogging, unfortunately.

*I’ve gotten back into playing roller derby – this time, with the Circle City Socialites.  It’s so great to get to skate again – I know I’m not the fastest or strongest skater, but I know there’s a place for me.   It’s awesome.

*Since I’ve been skating so much, my lovely friend Laura convinced me to attempt to run the 09 Mini Marathon.  I’ve been training for that, slowly but surely.  Emphasis on slowly.

*I’m still drinking and critiquing with the fine folks at Hoosier Beer Geek, but my schedule doesn’t really let me join them as much as I did last year.  You can check out their upcoming events here.

So, anyway, sorry for disappearing.  I’ll try to do better.

back.

miss me?

relaunch and reread

I’ve been in a hiatus of sorts, deciding what’s next for this blog. I think I’ve pretty much got it figured out; stay tuned in the next couple weeks or so to see if I can pull it off.

In the meantime, check out this week’s Nuvo, where the Hoosier Beer Geeks are profiled and yours truly gets in a slightly drunken quote or two.

Whee!

one, two, three, four

Whee, she returns! 

What have I been doing, you ask?  Well, the big fat majority of my waking time has been consumed with the following: 

1)      Work.  Work, work, work.  And more work. 

2)      Planning the vacation to here, here and here.

3)      Drinking beer and planning gatherings with these fine folks.

4)      Geocaching toward the Epic 92 Challenge (this will require another blog post, I’m sure.)

5)      Wasting copious amounts of time on these websites.

6)      Thinking of pithy and fun things with which to update my blog, but chickening out.

7)      Being indecisive over which new restaurants to try.

8)      Apartment hunting in these locations.

9)      Becoming a Netflix junkie.

10)   Getting back into the role of consummate rock snob. 

…what have y’all been doing, I wonder?

grumble, grumble

It’s been one of those mornings where I not only woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I woke up half an hour late with a backache to boot.  Grumble, grumble.

I went in to my usual Starbucks this morning, dodging a first class moron who nearly took off my door and desperately needs parking training, only to be greeted by a line 15 deep and a barista who didn’t know how to do iced coffee.  Grumble, grumble. 

The Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the newest NBA –D team, are going to be affiliated with none other than the Detroit Freaking Pistons.  Grumble, grumble. 

The only potential Presidential candidate that gets me excited in any way, shape or form says he’s “fallen out of love with politics”.  Grumble, grumble. 

I just got saddled with a massive project that will probably take me all day and then some.  So much for leaving early.  Grumble, grumble.