Affirmation: I owe no one an explanation

Today was a pretty good day – Mom and I started c25k and I made some pretty good stuff in the kitchen!

For breakfast, we warmed up the pumpkin pancakes I made mom last week for her birthday.

And then we went out for our jog – it went really well! Although I have to admit, I’ve lost all the endurance I built up the first time I did it. I lost 6.5 weeks’ worth of training because of those stupid shin splints. I know it’s bad to care what people think, but when I talk about c25k this time around, I feel the need to explain that I got 2/3 of the way done with the program before I HAD to stop due to injury. It’s sad, but I don’t want people to think I failed/quit because I got lazy. I want people to know I was in tears every day and could hardly descend the stairs because of the pain.

Is it vain or normal to want to explain myself?

After we got home, I celebrated with a Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale, and justified drinking beer at noon because 1) it’s Saturday, 2) I just ran, and 3) we were watching the Clemson game on TV!! While we watched the football game (we stomped Wake Forest, btw), I made organic French onion soup (from a carton) and some KICK-ASS paninis. I got portabella shicaccia bread from Publix – holy crap it’s amazing. I put low-fat pesto, swiss cheese, cheddar jack cheese, sundried tomatoes, feta, and spinach on each piece and slapped it on the George Foreman grill.

Mom said it’s better than anything Panera serves. :)

I put some shredded swiss cheese and homemade croutons on top of the soup. This definitely wasn’t better than Panera’s, though. There weren’t any onions in my French onion soup. :(

I split a Mothership Wit with Mom with our lunch.

It was alright – I use weird expressions for describing taste, so bear with me – it tasted shallow, like the opposite of full-bodied. It was very light, a tad bitter, and not very complex. I wasn’t in the mood for it, but I doubt I’ll buy it again anyway.

(Pretty nice how I try to whip out a beer-aficionado-magazine-caliber critique and then show a picture of a wine goblet of beer with flamingoes and palm trees painted on the side. Don’t take me seriously. I don’t.)

For an afternoon snack/dessert, I made Cooking Light’s pumpkin dip! I think it was Caitlin who made this a few weeks ago and got me thinking about making it. We had a huge honeycrisp in the fridge that needed to be used, so I split that between us and we each had another small honeycrisp with the dip. This stuff was INCREDIBLE. Seriously. I went back and had more dip spread on a toasted Arnold’s Thin.

I miss Mam-ma’s skylights…I didn’t need to use my icky flash at her house! After the game (did I mention we spanked ‘em?), Mom and I took the dogs out, and I froze my ass off. Woohoo!!! I made some hot chocolate when we got back to the house – a packet of sugar-free fat-free cocoa for each of us and then a packet of full-fat, full-calorie flavored novelty cocoa split between us.

Don’t mind my be-sweatshirted hand. In the evening I snacked on some almonds and then had a glass of wine while fixing/eating dinner.

Dinner was a naked Quorn cutlet, baked foil packet-style with apple cider, apple butter (cooked longer than necessary so it was really concentrated…oops), and onion, alongside some asparagus and a giant sweet potato…

…and some pumpkin pie for dessert.

I think I need to make it my personal mission to make prettier pictures. I hate using my flash, but the place I hang out in most has lowish lighting. I’ll work on it.

Also this evening, I wanted to sit down and put some of my jewelry and knit crafts on Etsy, but I just didn’t feel like it. Please tell me that happens to y’all – you need to do something (for yourself, not on someone else’s timetable) but when you finally find a great opportunity to sit down and do it, you don’t want to do it anymore. Whyyyy?? Today was perfect!! I’ll do it soon, I know. Maybe tomorrow? Now this is turning into a rambling journal, not a public blog. Blaaaaaarrrrrghhhh….

Night, lovelies!