Month: April 2011 (page 2 of 6)

Open Forums at Humanist Society

The SMH has a story today about the “Open Forum” at the Humanist Society here in Chippendale. I walk by some Wednesday nights and hear them through the open windows. I like that we have these quirky little societies in our neighbourhood.

I was interested to see that the article made no mention of the whole “Neo-Nazis invade Humanist Society” scandal from last year. Anybody know what finally happened with that? At the time I actually emailed about joining, thinking they could at least use my postal vote to kick out the fascists. But they never did get back to me…

RunningBlog: Week 16

Week 16
The week started out crappy – what with my mystery cheek infection and being on antibiotics and all – but slowly got better. Sunday I went out for a six-miler with the Snook, with a planned “Magic Mile” time trial for the second mile. We pushed hard and I felt like I was going to barf or explode by the end of it. I was thrilled to see our time was 9:46! Using Galloway’s Race Predictor and our average times for the past 3 MMs, that gives me a predicted marathon finish time of 5:39:28. Sweet! Monday I was wiped out so I rested. Tuesday I went out for an easy lunchtime run, and Wednesday I did a Spudds workout. Now we’re on a 5-day Easter/ANZAC day holiday long weekend, so the Snook went with me today for a run to Glebe. My hamstring still isn’t great, but I’m hoping it’ll hold up for Sunday’s long, long one!

Apr. 17: 9.67km
Apr. 19: 5.52km
Apr. 22: 5.80km
Total this week: 20.99km (13.1mi)
Total in 2011: 380.21km (237.6mi)

In order to meet my goal of running 1100km in 2011, I should be at 338.5km right now. So I’ve still got more than 40km worth of cushion. Only 7 weeks to go!

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Running Blog: Marathon Thoughts

Marathon Thoughts

This made me laugh and laugh. That’s pretty much what I expect it to be like! (Link courtesy of This Running Life.)

Zucchini Bread

Zucchini BreadZucchini Bread
We’re coming to the end of zucchini season, I think, but we’re still getting a couple big ones in each weekly veggie box from Food Connect Sydney. Last weekend as a special treat I made them into the Snook’s favourite: Zucchini Bread. It’s actually not that well known in Australia, which is odd because it’s similar to Banana Bread and they love that here. Anyway, I thought I’d document the recipe since everyone who tastes it ends up asking for it! Here it is:

1-1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
1 c. sugar
1 c. finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini
1/4 c. cooking oil
1 egg
1/4 t. finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 c. chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

1. Butter the bottom and halfway up the sides of your loaf tin. (If you butter all the way up the sides, your bread will sink down when you take it out of the oven.) In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients (the first six on the list) together. I never bother to sift; I just stir it really well.

2. In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients (sugar, oil, zucchini, egg, lemon) together. Add the dry ingredients to this bowl and stir just until everything’s moistened. (It’ll be lumpy. That’s good.) Fold in the nuts if you’re using them.

3. Dump into your loaf pan. Bake in a 350F/180C oven for 50-55 minutes or til a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then take it out of the pan and cool as long as you can bear not to eat it.

Makes one loaf. (My photo shows two because I doubled it.) I like it warm with butter on top. You can even toast it, if you’re weird like the Snook.

Read on if you want to see photos of the preparation!Ingredients for the zucchini bread.

Zucchini Bread ingredients

The dry ingredients, all mixed together.

Dry ingredients

The wet ingredients. (If you’ve got a food processor with a grating attachment, use that. Saves heaps of time!)

Wet ingredients

Mixing it all up together.

Mixing it up

Into the loaf pans, ready for baking!

Ready for baking

Freshly baked zucchini bread.

Zucchini Bread

Eyelet Yoke Cardigan

Eyelet Yoke CardiganEyelet Yoke Cardigan
One of my co-workers just had his first baby – a little girl – so I decided to knit something for him. I had some Morris Empire 4ply in #436 Bloom that I thought would be perfect. I went to Ravelry to look for suitable baby cardigans with patterns that wouldn’t compete too much with the variegated wool. (And no Baby Surprise! I am going to come out of the closet and admit that I think they’re pretty ugly. I’m going to stop torturing myself by knitting them.) Anyway, I found this Eyelet Yoke Cardigan that seemed like it would work. It was really quick to knit up, and I used less than 2 balls of the Empire (on 3.5mm needles). The eyelet details on the yoke (pic), sleeves, and waist kept it fun and interesting. For the buttons, I was pleased to find 5 similar-ish buttons (pic) in my stash all in colours that matched the wool. Hooray for mismatched buttons! (More details on Ravelry here.)

I gave the cardy to Fei this morning and he was thrilled! I can’t wait to see pics of it on his little girl.

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And the winner is…

And the winner is…
Random numberPtinutz (aka Amanda) has won my drawing* for Marshall Ulrich’s book Running on Empty: An Ultramarathoner’s Story of Love, Loss, and a Record-Setting Run Across America. Thanks to those who left comments!

*I disregarded the comments from me, Steve, and Heather. That left six comments, and the generator came up with 3!

The Tao of Poo

“The Tao of Poo”. All about athletes and their very common stories of intestinal distress. Thank god it’s never happened to me…

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