Thursday, November 12, 2009

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Preview of The Marines Corps Physical Fitness Test Until There's Snow on the Ground

So this is my bye week. Then after I get back from nationals and until there's snow on the ground, I'm going to be adding speed practices and, off skates, testing myself against the Marine Corp Physical Fitness Test:

minimumperfect
flexed arm hang15 secconds70 seconds
crunches50 in 2 minutes100 in 2 minutes
three mile run30 minutes21 minutes

Though I might switch out the flexed arm hang for pushups, say, minimum 5 in one minute, perfect 10 in one minute? Is that a good number of pushups?

ETA: I am informed by Shannanigan that pushups are part of the Army Physical Fitness Test, so, what, 19 pushups in two minutes minimum, 42 for perfect?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

How It Went  but seriously i got better

So then I went on my run, I run Saturday morning now. And I think I have to run harder, which sucks. When I say that it sucks that running three miles in half-mile bursts ain't no thing to me anymore, I mean that it doesn't suck. I mean, I used to not be able to run a block to catch the bus. But man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a workout for.

The rest of the weekend was fine: cleaned the house a bit after my run, then to Shannana's to make screens for clam and squid t-shirt designs. It's not what you think! Rioters practice Sunday morning, I switched my wheels back to D-Rods with Flat-Outs as pushers and that was pretty good. I caught a break because Derby Lite practice was cancelled; so I could take a lovely shower, and then to Karma's for her lovely housewarming with lovely cupcakes. And then a post housewarming sugar crash, and then Choppers and TV on the chaise.

Tons of things to get done this week before NATIONALS and then a little break, which truthfully I need.

Monday, November 9, 2009

How It Went okay i guess

Weekend practices at 10:00 AM are so civilized. You can sleep in until eight, unless you haven't been sleeping well and wake up at 6:30 AM anyway, and you can start a nice tofu scramble breakfast, do the dishes, forget the potatoes on the stove until you smell them burning, burst into tears, and when pit crew tells you that it's okay, sob IT'S NOT OKAY NOTHING'S OKAY and feel sorry for yourself on the chaise while he hurriedly scoops the potatoes out of the pan. Then you get petted, and then you get up to make the rest of breakfast & the potatoes are actually just a little bit burned.

Ha ha, this story isn't going to get better than that—

Friday, November 6, 2009

Thursday, November 5, 2009

What Needed Doing trepanning, perhaps

"Do you know why I'm always late lately?"

"Twelve-hour showers."

I stop racing around with the towel on my head. "Aw. You guessed it right off."

The other answer that he nicely hasn't said is, Facebook.

"Can I tell you why, anyway? It's because when I started waking up at eight, I'd be in a panic and only put conditioner on & just sort of rinse myself off. Now I have it in my head that I can wake up at eight and have time for a shower, like scrub everything." Nobody scrubs like a Korean, if you don't know.

I'm waking up at eight because I'm going to bed at midnight. I don't know why I don't go to bed at ten, if I need the sleep. Except that I do, going to bed at ten makes me feel like a loser. Like I ran out of fun. I need to be up until midnight doodling t-shirt designs (TK!) or sewing t-shirt dresses. Is this the dumbest reason for sleep deprivation there is—

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

French Silk Apple Bread Pudding with cashew cream sauce

1 one-pound loaf nice bread
2 cups plain silk (soy milk)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 apples
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a couple tablespoons earth balance margarine
1 cup cashews
3/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Soak the cashews in a small bowl with enough cold water to cover them.

Trim the heels off the bread, then cut up the rest of the loaf into bite-sized cubes. Whisk the sugar and vanilla into the silk in a large bowl. Toss the bread cubes in the silk and let soak while you prep the apples.

Peel and cut up the apples into bite-sized chunks. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl and toss the apples in the mix.

Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9" x 13" baking pan with earth balance margarine if you are making this for vegans, which I am. Arrange the apples evenly in the bottom of the dish, and then cover the apples with the soaked bread. Butter a sheet of aluminium foil and cover the dish, and bake covered for thirty minutes. Remove the foil and bake uncovered for ten more minutes, until lightly browned.

While the pudding is in the oven, drain the cashews and blend with water until totally smooth. Stir in vanilla and nutmeg.

To serve, ladle cashew cream over scoops of bread pudding.

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from counting calories. Though I don't think this is actually so bad.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Garlic Cider Vinegar Soup

Good soup for the sick, or to keep from getting sick—

1 Tbsp olive oil
all the cloves from a whole head of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
salt
1 Tbsp Hungarian half-sharp paprika
1 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup cider vinegar
six cups stock or water
1 package frozen edamame, blanched and shelled
1 block extra-firm tofu, cubed

First, prep all ingredients as directed.

Heat oil in soup pot. Saute garlic with a bit of salt for a minute until just colored. Stir in paprika & saute for a few more minutes until toasted, then stir in flour and cider vinegar to make a smooth paste. Add stock or water and bring to a strong simmer. Add edamame and tofu and simmer until heated through, about five minutes.

You can eat this on its own, or over cellophane noodles or brown rice.

ETA: You know what would be really good in this soup, mushrooms. Thinly sliced, and sauteed along with the garlic with a tad bit more olive oil...

Per 1/2 recipe, 435 calories

Monday, November 2, 2009

How It Went evolved, has a plan

20091031_shrimp1 Bootcamp was cancelled, so I went on a run. I did all right, I haven't run regularly since two years ago & I can still run for a half-mile at a stretch. I did three miles, which handily enough is from my house to the Puerto Rican flag on Western and back, alternating a half-mile running with a quarter-mile walking. I applied last week's blocking lesson about keeping your tail tucked under to this run —I tend to tumble forward when I run— and I felt nice and solid. Boy though, my hip flexors are sore now.

If you want it in chart form, it looks like this. Yes I know, I am the only one who wants it in chart form. Get off my lawn.

SAT SUN
PLAY
run
PLAY
WCR Rioters
WORK
Cooking
WORK
Cleaning
HOBBY
photo shoot
PLAY
Derby Lite
PASTIME
All Hallow's Eve Early Supper
PASTIME
Choppers ft.
The Plan

My french silk upside-down apple bread pudding with cashew cream experiment was a success. Recipe TK!

And I have also perfected a mega-garlic soup recipe, sadly, because pit crew has been sick. Here he is, roused off the chaise and forced to pose for this picture. But it had to be memorialized, I had been looking forward to Having Halloweens Together for two years & and then found out that one of the things that you don't necessarily get cleared up via long distance is, he doesn't like dressing up. I don't know if it's worse for him being with a loose cannon like me, who randomly decides to be a shrimp for Halloween. But anyway, he is the website GodHatesShrimp.com. He had the t-shirt made and everything, and did get to wear it to last week's skating party; but on Halloween night, he stayed home and shaved his head.

Sunday morning Rioters practice, where I learned that Sugars really are too soft for skate court. I always have to find out for myself. At some point, I thought my wheels might be spinning backwards like when you're on a bus that's not moving and the bus next to you moves forward. Wait no, this was the bus stuck in the mud. Buses are my favorite metaphor, if you haven't noticed. Anyway, I will write more about wheels in a bit.

Between Rioters practice and Derby Lite practice, pit crew sawed down the little piece of wood that we put the speakers on for watching movies on his laptop. Our house is full of contraptions. I swept up the sawdust. "This counts as cleaning, right?"

So then I led Derby Lite practice, and I don't know if I can actually handle two Sunday practices or if I'm just butt stubborn. I told you how it is though, about that second shot of Bushmills. Earlier in the week, I was lying in the dark fretting how I could add in a fifth practice. Skating isn't my anti-drug, skating is my drug full stop.

Settled down in comfy clothes and under blankets for Choppers and the movie of the week, which was the Battlestar Galactica movie The Plan. Pretty much uncommunicative by the time the movie started, and dead asleep by eight-thirty.