Overheard...

We were watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix, and the episode synopsis mentioned that someone *might* be a call girl...

The Boy Child (11) asked me, "what's a call girl?"

I deftly answered "Someone that gets paid to go on dates." He was satisfied with this answer.

The hubster and The Girl Child (9) walked in and said "Oh yeah, your son wants to know what a call girl is..."

I said, "Yeah, I already told him, 'Its someone that gets paid to go on dates.'"

...to which The Girl Child quipped, "Oh, like a hooker."

Send wine. Lots and lots of wine.

What Doesn't Kale You...

And now...for something completely different and unexpected...a food tutorial type thingy.

Over the last year, the Pandora household has taken to expanding our dietary horizons and eating things we have never tried before. Specifically in the vegetable arena. Out of all of the new veggies that we added to our repertoire, kale is, hands down, the favorite.

Now, it has come to our attention that kale can be gross, if prepared the wrong way. So far, we have been lucky, and seem to have stumbled across a fairly fool-proof kale cooking method. (I hesitate to call it a recipe, as I am way too vague for that shit.)

I am nothing if not candid about the fact that, whenever possible, I'm lazy. For this reason? Unless I have no other option, I will always get the bagged kale, that is pre shredded or whatever. Go ahead, judge me. Heaven knows it won't be the first time.

Great, now that we have properly demonized me, let's dive in.

Large pan, olive oil, Minnie Mouse timer.

Start with a nice, big, deep pan that has a nice snug lid. 

Uncooked kale is fluffy. Cooked kale is not. It shrinks ALOT. 

And if it turns out really well? The last thing you want is to have half a bag of uncooked kale mocking you, while your plate and pan are empty. 

So you want a nice deep pan. Trust me on this. 

Add approximately 2-3 tbsp of olive oil, and heat it for about 2 minutes. 

Add 4-5 (or more, if you either fear vampires or want to repel any errant and unwelcome requests for a kiss) cloves of garlic, minced, or freshly pressed. 

Heat on low, until the garlic starts to get really fragrant...about 1 minute.

Note, this is *not* a heaping quantity.
This is about 1/3 the final heap

Add the kale. Heaping amounts of it. 

Turn it and flip it in the oil/garlic mixture, until it is well coated, then salt it.

Nice, secure lid...

Add about 1/3-1/2 cup of water, and cover the kale. 

Make sure the heat is on LOW, then walk away from it for about 3-5 minutes. Turn on a song, and dance your butt off. I highly recommend Jimmy Eat World, "In the Middle". It's about 3 minutes long.

Open the pan, stir and flip the kale, and sprinkle with rosemary and any other spice of your liking. 

Nom, nom, nom

Stir it, until the kale is evenly coated then re-cover. Ignore it for another 2 minutes or so. I find The Beatles, Blackbird, a great way to pass that time...and I attempt to sing along. This usually clears the room.

Add about 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar, then cover again. Let cook for about 2 more minutes, shimmy around to The Kinks, You Really Got Me, remove from the heat and enjoy.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I tend to pick small pieces out, throughout the process and taste them, to determine if I want more salt or rosemary or whatever. I figure every batch is a little different, so go with it. That or I am hungry and have impulse issues. 

Its sure to be one of those.

Jingle This...

Seems December has come and gone, and I was pretty slack about posting...::shrug::. I'm sure you'll get over it, right?

Such a good sport!

So, we kicked off the month in grand form, by running the Jingle Bell Dash for Cash...which was a new race this year...a 10K. Up and at 'em, bright and early, on a frosty December morning, we donned festive running clothes...an elfish get up for me, and a penguin hat for the hubster.

Though you can't see it in the picture, that elf hat has a big ole jingle bell on the end of it. A bell that drove the poor hubster to the verge of insanity. It would jingle-jingle-jingle as I ran, to the point he was just about to grab it and rip it off...when, inexplicably? It'd stop...for just long enough that he would shake the urge to go Hulk-Smash on my hat...at which point it would start up again. (Of course it would, lol)

We stayed together for the whole course, and chatted on and off...when we weren't dying from the seemingly endless uphill. At one point, we had been climbing for what felt like days, and we got to what looked to be the top and a turn. One of the volunteers was standing there, cheering folks on and directing them to the next part of the course. She gleefully shouted "Just take the first right at the top!"

If you're dorky and you know it... ;)

We looked at one another and I said "Did she say top?? You mean we have to keep going up?!?!?" Lol...

We finished the race at a respectable 52:50. Not lighting the world on fire, but certainly not a bad time...at least for us.

After the race, was the awards ceremony. There were cash prizes for top finishers, for costumes and just random drawings. We got lucky, and my named was called for one of the $50 prizes.

All in all, an overall good time.

A fun event, a hilly course and cash prices made this a run that we will definitely look to do again next year.

Turkey Trot To Go

You know you are a runner when...

...the first thought that pops into your mind, in regards to celebrating a holiday or an event is...there's a race for that.

Thanksgiving? No exception. As most areas seem to, our small hamlet sponsors a Turkey Trot 5K. All proceeds benefit the local food pantry, and all participants are encouraged to bring canned goods and other non-perishable food items to donate.

This is the 4th year that the race has been run, and marked the highest participation to date.

And this year, we helped contribute to those numbers by adding not only my name, but those of the hubster, The Boy Child and The Girl Child to the list of those that ran.

In the last several weeks, leading up to this race, the hubster has been working with me on my pace, pushing me to better my speed by more than a minute on average for shorter distances. Coming in to the race, we all felt pretty confident that I should have no problem blowing the doors off of my old 5K PR. So the goal became - in my words: "To break 25 minutes", in the hubsters: "To do sub 8 minute miles on average".

Thanksgiving morning dawned cold and shiny. And did I mention COLD?

We woke early, bundled up and headed over to the park that would serve as the start and finish of the race, at 7:15AM. It was about 30 degrees. After a brief wait in the registration line, we picked up our bibs and affixed them to our clothes. And then played the waiting game.

Luckily, living in a small town, as we do, the odds are pretty good that, if you are going to have a large gathering of locals? You will know a fair percentage of them. This event was no different, and we were able to kill time for the next hour, socializing with friends and neighbors.

Finally, the clock read 8:30, and it was time to take off. The Boy Child was at the very front of the line with a friend, ready and raring to go. The hubster and I lined up together a bit farther back, while The Girl Child hung back even further with some other friends of ours that were running at a slower pace.

One of the very first things that both hubster and I noticed was that our toes? Were FROZEN. An hour of standing around in frosty grass, waiting to run had rendered them little more than flesh toned icicles. It took the better part of the first mile and a half for them to stop aching.

Happy Turkey Trot Day!

The Turkey Trot is a simple out and back, so there isn't a whole lot along the way that counts as majestic scenery...so I will skip right to the good part.

We reached our goals. I finished the race in 24:29 - which is definitely under 25 minutes. Our overall pace was 7:54 - which is definitely sub-8 minutes. The hubster finished at the same time I did, and The Boy Child finished 5 seconds behind us.

As for The Girl Child? She finished about 10 minutes behind the rest of us, but she finished. And, most importantly, she ran the whole 3.1 miles. I have never seen her so excited and proud of herself.