the christian left

Wanna see a big dork?

Yup, that’s me after all the festivities today. I was wearing a hundred layers of clothes because it was a balmy 34 degrees as I pulled out of the driveway. When I got home, however, it had probably gone to about 60. So, as I do not really have any cool weather running clothes, I had to make do. And you can see that they ever so kindly gave me the coolest shirt I have ever worn. That even accentuates that my hips ARE a mile wide. And the girl aptly asked upon my return, “Mommy, why are you wearing a piece of paper?”

I made it through the race with no problems at all. I was running with another friend, and we took a little walk twice to recharge and have something left for the end, but we made it. In about 38 minutes. Now, I know this isn’t anything staggering for most people. Most athletes would scoff seriously at this. But here’s the thing. For the Very.First.Time.In.My.Life I have chosen something active and stuck with it. It’s been a tad over six months since I STARTED running. And when I did, I started the cool running couch to 5k plan. At that point, I was walking 5 minutes, running for 60 seconds, walking for like 90 or something, then doing that for 20 minutes at which point I could walk another 5 minutes. When I saw the treadmill crank over to one mile, I was fabulously exhilarated. I have tried running before, tried the C25K program before. To no avail. This time I finished it. And this time I made it to the race. There’s a lot of hurry up and wait, and my time would have been better had we not gotten lumped in with the walkers. Not too sure how that happened, but it was a sea of people and it was overwhelming. We saw three people totally bust onto the sidewalk. That rocked. I know it’s insensitive, but they were all ok — it’s just FUNNY you know.

I’ll let the fitness update go, but I think it gave me some much needed confidence and motivation to keep plugging along. Next time I want to run for the party. Who’s in? I may even get some real running clothes, too.

On to the tacos!!!

and during the building process…

These are the baja-style tempeh tacos from the veganomicon. And they rule. Make ‘em. Don’t skimp, either. Get started the day before and this is no big deal. Start the day of and you’re going to be chopping and marinading for a while. I had the tempeh on for its soak and the cabbage slaw working in the fridge the night before. We did not have the lime crema because I could not find any plain soy yogurt in our blessed town all week last week. So, we used sour cream instead (vegan/non). Possibly not as festive or adventuresome, but you do what you can. And it rocked. We cleaned out the tempeh in one meal. It was ON. And the leftover cabbage slaw plus some black beans and lettuce and other taco salad fixins make a great lunch. And dinner, if you are busy going to private yarn sales and miss the family dinner that you cooked. Yes, I had an identical dinner and lunch. I couldn’t wait to eat more of that slaw. Delish. You know if there is a Mexican recipe in a book that I will make it. So I aim to please. This one’s a winner, though. Hands down.