Month: October 2010 (page 2 of 5)

TopBetta

TopBetta
I’ve been pretty quiet lately, huh? The main reason is this website, which just launched on Wednesday. I have been working on this site for about five months, and the original specification I wrote ran to over 70 pages. It was a mammoth undertaking. And it didn’t stop once we got into development; I have since done a *dozen* different versions of the spec as things were added, removed, and changed. The dev team were amazing, and they pulled out all the stops in the last few weeks to get it done. There have been a few hiccups since launch, of course, but far less than I had feared. Now we get to start putting back in a lot of the stuff that was cut for deadline. But not today, today we finally get to celebrate getting to the (first) finish line. Well done to everyone on my team! We did a good job.

Nigella and those carrots

Why are women depicted differently from men in food photography? EXACTLY. This is why I still have a hard time taking Nigella Lawson seriously. Men get to be chefs; women have to be porn stars posing with phallic vegetables.

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Stamppot and Scones

StamppotStamppot and Scones
This week’s veggie box had more kale in it, so I went hunting for another way to use it up. Somehow I hit upon the idea of making stamppot. Stamppot is a Dutch dish that basically consists of boiling up a ton of vegetables, mashing them, and serving it with meat. I’d been wanting to try this dish for 25 years.* Here’s the recipe I used. Most of the cooking time is in the preparation. I used potatoes, butternut pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots, parsnips, leek, onion, and kale. After a rough mashing, I added a big whack of butter, salt, and pepper. As the meat accompaniment, we fried up a half a dozen Spanish chorizo sausages. It was very tasty! It easily made six large servings.

* In the 3rd grade, I discovered the book The Twenty-One Balloons at my school book fair and bought it. I still have that very book, complete with my 8-year-old self’s signature. It’s one of my favorite books in the world, and I’ve probably read it twenty times. At the end of the story, the Krakatoans are forced to escape their exploding island aboard a massive balloon platform. The only food they have to eat is what Mrs. D (of the Dutch house) had prepared for dinner: Stampot von zuurkool met rookworst. Isn’t it funny the things that stick in your mind? As soon as Google showed the word “stamppot,” I knew exactly where I’d heard of it, and that I had to make it.

I also did some baking today. Earlier in the week I saw this typically gorgeous Smitten Kitchen post featuring Apple and Cheddar Scones. I’ve been on an apple-and-cheese kick lately, so it appealed to me. We had pretty much everything already on hand, so I whipped them up for tea today. They were so good! It was my first attempt at making scones from scratch. (Normally the Snook is the scone-maker in this house.) He said they were “light and crispy.” We devoured two each not long after taking them out of the oven.

Baking scones   Finished scones

Good jobs

We are lucky.
It appears I have the 26th best job in America, according to CNN. The Snook’s current role is #37, but he’s also been #1 many times over the last 10 years. The weird thing is that neither of us actually got degrees in our current fields. (I did Communications; the Snook did Chemistry.) For the most part we just stumbled into our roles because we find them interesting and they play to our strengths. We’re very lucky.

SHAZAM!

At work today, Sean sent an email with the subject line “SHAZAM!” I immediately started hearing a voice in my head going “Shazam! Shazam!” Who is that? It’s like a TV character. Was it from Andy Griffith? Is it… Gomer Pyle? IT TOTALLY WAS! HOW DO I KNOW THIS?

I am my father’s daughter.

RunningBlog: Week 41

Week 41
Huh. I just realised that I trained on five out of the last seven days! That may be a personal record. Sunday was the WWFoR, of course, where I ran the Zen Run 10K. Monday I went to yoga class. Tuesday I was laid up all day with a killer headache, but Wednesday I went back to work and did my usual Spudds circuit. Thursday I went for an easy run, and then this morning I did speed intervals. I guess my energy is starting to bounce back a bit!

Oct. 10: 10.01km
Oct. 14: 6.00km
Oct. 15: 5.44km
Total this week: 21.45km (13.4mi)
Total in 2010: 775.91km (484.9mi)

To meet my goal of running 1000km in 2010, I should be at 788.4km. I’m slowly gaining ground again…

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Wait, what?

Wait, what?! Ione Skye is married to Ben Lee? How did I not know that? (Also, she’s 8 years older than he is. Nice one, Ione!)

Worldwide Festival of Races 2010

Worldwide Festival of Races 2010
Today was the much anticipated Sydney get-together for the Worldwide Festival of Races. We had six runners turn out for our event in Centennial Park: Kunaal, me, Andrew, JayDub, Eoin, and Jo. It was a glorious spring day and we had a great time running together.

Post-race

That’s the post-race photo though. We all started turning up at the Park prior to 10am to make camp and get ready for our events. At 10:10, the Snook fired the starter’s pistol (an iPhone app, of course) and we hit the track. Kunaal and JayDub ran with me for the first few km’s, and JayDub ended up pacing me for the whole first 5K. We finished the first lap in under 35 minutes and stopped back at camp for a quick drink of water.Mid-race

That’s me, mid-race. I told JayDub to go on ahead, as I knew I’d be slowing down in the second half. The park was packed with picknickers, cyclists, pony riders, and other runners. I headed out for my second lap hoping to keep my pace as consistent as possible. While climbing the only big hill, I started to get some sharp pains high up on my right thigh. It feels like I’ve got a small strain or tear there. I took a few walk breaks on the hill and tried not to push it too hard. Once I got back down to the flat track, the pain eased up a bit. At the 8.5km mark, I realised that I was still holding steady at 7:00/km and that I had some gas left in the tank. So I started to push. My last kilometer ended up being my fastest of the whole race! [RunKeeper details] I finished my 10K at 69:22 and spent a few wild minutes thinking I’d set a PR for the distance. (Turns out I missed last year’s 69:09 by only a few seconds.) Eoin and Kunaal had already finished their 10K and 5K, so I joined them and the Snook while we waited for the half-marathoners to finish.

Me and Snookums

The Snook really is the best support staff a girl could have!

Andrew and JayDub both finished their half-marathons in just under two hours, which was fantastic. Once they got back to camp, the celebrations began! JayDub had somehow managed to find the only bottle shop in Sydney that imported Sam Adams beer. Here’s the four of us toasting to our patron saint and Bostonian Steve Runner.

Beer!

We sat together for a couple hours enjoying the sunshine and each other’s company. Jo and his wife turned up, having missed us for the start. (Jo ran his 10K and spotted some of our group on the course.)

Post-race

Post-race

Post-race

Such a great day! Thanks to JayDub for coming up with the idea, and to everyone else for participating. Next year will be even bigger and better, I’m sure. 🙂