SPRING BREAK!

Wooo!

As of 2:35 today, I am officially released for spring break.  

The picture above is of me celebrating or, maybe, yawning.

I was going for excited...and came up with sleepy.  Oh well.

I'm looking forward to a pretty low-key week.  I'll do my long run of 11 miles tomorrow and then run in the St. Patty's Day race on Saturday.  I've got things scheduled and spattered throughout the week but, really, I'm looking forward to doing some deep spring cleaning and trying to get some stuff out of the house.  Maybe a garage sale is in my future?  Who knows...the world is my oyster.

Man, you know you're getting old when your bring plan for spring break is cleaning and maybe a garage sale.

Buffalo Chicken Chili!

After I made this meal, David gave me a big ol' smooch-a-roo on the lips and proclaimed it his favorite meal of all time.  He then did the dishes without prompting and made the bed.

You better believe this is going into our regular meal rotation.  I hate doing dishes!

Plus, it's super-dooper easy.

(When I took a picture of this, David informed me that it's weird to photograph my food.
Not weird!  How else will it go on the blog??)

Buffalo Chicken Chili

1 lb chicken breasts

2 stalks diced celery

1 large red pepper, diced

2 tsp minced garlic

1 Tbs ground cumin

1/2 Tbs paprika

1/4 cup Frank's hot sauce

15 oz can tomato sauce

15 oz can diced tomatoes

15 oz can black beans

15 oz can chili beans in sauce

Add ingredients to slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours (or until chicken is no longer raw).

Shred chicken with 2 forks.

Top with sour cream or, if you're David, a whole lot of Tabasco sauce.

Symphony

David and I went to the symphony on Friday night and got a little fancy.

In honor of not wearing sweatpants, we tried to take a cute picture.

It was tough.

No.

I tell David to smile with his teeth.

He obliges.  

Terrible.

Then I tell him he looks weird and he should try to stick his neck out some.

Now he looks like a turtle.

And this one is just wrong.

FINALLY, I grab the camera...

Success!!!!!

Well, this is the worst picture of me, but it'll do.

The symphony was fun... a big difference from our Saturday night at the wrestling hall, but it's nice to get a little dressed up, right?

South Broadway Athletic Club, I love you.

On Saturday, David and I returned to the site of our wedding reception, South Broadway Athletic Club.

We didn't go back to renew our wedding vows or dance the night away...nope, we went to see a bout of professional wrestling.

So much fun.  

I'm not normally into professional wrestling, but I always love a spectacle.  

And this place is nothing if not a spectacle.  The crowd was like a constant stream of People of Wal-mart.  

And I got my picture taken with Moon Dog.

Here's Moon Dog fighting The Lumberjack...

Here's Moon Dog's crack...

Later in the night, Moon Dog totally made The Lumberjack bleed in the head with that bone.

Seriously--that's not fake.

Or it's at least super convincing fake.

Awesome!

Earlier in the night, we saw Jaysin Static fight some guy who apparently escaped from a mental institution.

Very Shutter Island, huh?

I only remember the little guy's name is Jaysin Static because it was written on his shirt.

Then, on Sunday... I saw him at Target!!!!  

I was too in awe to approach him.  He had a baby and two girls... that's super stardom!

In the next match, Johnny Courageous battled Purple Passion, who apparently represented gay men. 

You know, because he was dressed in tattered purple sweatpants.  The go-to outfit for all gay men.

The crowd chanted USA, because Johnny Courageous wore American underpants.

And that's how you heckle gay purple-sweat-suited men.

So many things wrong about all of those sentences.  So many.

Up next, Gorgeous Gary fought The Future.

The Future was HUGE!  Gary was apparently very upset about looking like a little guy.

Ahhh.  Ref/Ump, whatever the guy with the whistle is called.

Glad he was nice to little girls.

This is David's favorite picture... 

He loves The Lumberjacks.  

My loyalty remains with Moon Dog.

I'm swooning.

After wrestling wrapped up, we decided to check out the new casino they built in South County.

Did you hear that, Grandma??  They BUILT a casino 7 minutes from my house.

Penny slots galore!

Nothing to say

I really have nothing exciting to say...but that's ok.

I took Maggie on another run last night, totally ignoring Mom & Dad's advice that she's too chunky monkey to run.  We did 4 miles at 7:56...and only had to slow down for the last 1/2 mile.  Poor Maggie.  She gets so excited when I pull out her leash...this whole running thing is probably the last thing she expected.

Tomorrow, David and I are going to the symphony...some show about planets.  I got the tickets super cheap on groupon...and, luckily, David is a good sport.  I'll try to take some pictures of us fancy-pants up.  He's going to try to convince me to go to a fish fry in our fancy-pants.  We'll see who wins :)

Another post about running

Yes, another.  Sorry.  I run a lot.

I had a good run yesterday--I did 6 miles on Grant's Trail at an 8:14 pace.  A few weeks ago, I was blown away to do a 4 miler at a 8:09 pace...so this is a great pace for 6 miles.

I'm not really sure why my times are getting better all of the sudden, but I have a few theories.

Disclaimer: My theories are not based on anything.

I started increasing my calories... when we got back from vacation, I was really feeling the holiday bloat, so I limited my calories to between 1200-1300/daily.  Since I dropped that poundage, I've upped them to between 1800-2000/daily. I don't really eat fast food, so usually this is a pretty high volume of food.  Maybe my body is feeling a little better fueled than it was?

I'm stable in my cross-training as well... I started doing a boot camp twice a week in January and I think it took my body a little while to adjust to the different type of exercise.  I had been "just" running for quite a while, and was SORE for the first few weeks.  Maybe I finally built some muscles up?

At any rate, I'm going to accept this speeding up joyfully.  I've never really done the tempo/fartlek/interval type training for races, but maybe this increase is what I need to motivate me.  I'm debating whether I'm going to run another marathon in the fall or try to be really good at a half in the fall.  


Of course, really good is relative.  

K-State WINS!

David and I had a great weekend...we went to Kansas!

I like going to Kansas.  

After I got off work on Friday and David finished his cite check, we loaded up Maggie Roobearski and headed off to the parent's house.  Once we arrived, they showered us with Buzzard's Pizza AND beer.  It was the Friday night I needed.

Saturday morning, we headed over to the clinic to hang out.  Maggie got a MUCH NEEDED bath (seriously, I think she rolled in something dead.  She was RANK.) and then we hung out with some puppies.

Doesn't Maggie look thrilled here?  I think her maternal instincts are kicking in...

too bad she's been spayed.  My poor, barren baby.

The beagle puppy is traveling to Seattle with Mom next weekend and the boxer is a random dog that just happened to be at the clinic.  That's the perk of having a dad who is a veterinarian--there are always random puppies to play with.  I tried really hard to get Dad to tell the boxer's owners that she ran away or something so that I could take her home, but no luck.  Dad seems to think that would be bad for business.

Don't you think Maggie needs some friends?

After the clinic closed, I went on a run while Mom walked.  I did my 10-miler in a fantastic pace for a long run--8:42/mile.  I was thrilled!  At this rate, I'm on-track to do a sub-two half, no problem.

Then we drove to Manhattan (I almost typed Man-happiness, just like I used to in college) so that Dad and David could go to the K-State/Mizzou basketball game.  David had never been in Bramlage before (otherwise known as the Octagon of Doom), so it was a nice dude-outing for both Dad and David.  We ate a yummy dinner in Aggieville before dropping them off...then Mom and I did some shopping.  

It was a perfect day! K-State won (David almost cried) and I got to shop.  Yay!!

Sunday, I woke up early and did a quick run...I actually managed to get my BEST pace ever for a 4 mile run--it was 7:34/mile.  

Yes, that's right.

7:34/mile

I was so proud of myself that I left my Garmin on and showed everyone.  For some reason, I worried that they wouldn't believe me... they did, but a little insurance doesn't hurt :)