Sunday, September 5, 2010

Wins and Losses and Epic Fails



So as completely and utterly selfish as this sounds, we tend to stretch our birthday celebrations into weeklong celebrations...and mine has encompassed this nice long holiday weekend. Lucky me!


Wins:


As embarrassed as I am to admit this, I have never had an MP3 player. Until now! Yee haw I have joined the twenty-first century. This morning the Mister helped me download some songs and build up a workout mix. He was mortified by some of my picks but what can I say--I was born in 1974 so I have a few late 80s and early to mid 90s loves. So there. And you know what else? Debbie Gibson shares my birthday and sometimes when I clean my house I turn on her greatest hits CD. Ha.


I am also joining the twenty-first century and getting a smart phone. I have mixed emotions about this--I resisted a basic cell phone for years and now sorta can't think about living without one....and people keep texting me and I can't text back and it's really pitiful. I'm waiting another few weeks until my plan expires so at least I can get a semi-good deal.


I have been mega-running lately. Friday I ran 10 miles. Saturday 6.5. Today 7 (whilst listening to my new MP3 player--yippee!). Right.this.very.second my right foot is submerged in a bucket of ice water because of the damage said runs inflicted on my right ankle and one of my toenails. Back to the MP3 player--I had to seriously stop myself from busting out into dancing mid-run a few times. That would have been pretty.


Thanks to Larisa, I no longer get mega blisters when I do those mega runs. Thank you a million times over for turning me on to Glide. Also--no more sports bra marks, which are always such a beautiful thing in the summer.

A gift certificate to Gordoughs from Stacey as part of my birthday treats! Gordoughs are gourmet donuts and they are--generally--heaven. See why I run?


A nice long chat with Gail, my NJ sister.


The acquisition of a free Arco mid-century modern lamp (Castiglioni style). I have not stopped talking about this lamp since we got it (did I mention it was free?), the mister re-wired it, we cleaned it up, and now it sits in our living room. It's huge and beautiful and has a 150+ pound solid marble base that was a joy to move. We saw many reproductions of these lamps when we were in NYC last time and started lusting after them but even the reproductions cost $500 and up and then boom! this one lands in our laps for free. Maybe there is something to the Secret after all!

Just kidding. But I do love that lamp.


Losses:


On my actual birthday, the Mister brought me one of those Gordoughs but it was just a not-so-great flavor (that I picked). I ate three bites before deciding it was simply not worth it. I plan on making a revisit very soon and am salivating just thinking about those damned gourmet donuts.


Watching MadMen (not a loss at all, only this part) and seeing Trudy and Pete finally get pregnant after being infertile for a few years/seasons. They reacted every bit the way I always would have pictured the mister and I had we finally succeeded. OK, jealous of fictional TV characters? New low for the LC.





Potential Loss?

I really can't call this a loss yet. But-- I received a text from the wife of our former little brother, whom I have talked about here previously. I'm semi-sorta scared to contact her back...the text was fairly neutral...but what if she's contacting us to tell us they're on to their third? Ack. Only time will tell.


Epic Fails

I hate to admit this seeing as how you internets are under the impression that I'm a master baker (you guys know I only post the photos of the pretty work, right?) but I had one helluva an epic fail in the bread baking department. I had six perfect loaves rising in the oven while we were out running errands, and I was all ready to bake them and share them with friends. So imagine my horror when I opened the oven prior to turning it on to find the following:







I don't know what happened. All I know is that it sucked and there was yeasty running dough everywhere. It was a pleasure to run the self-cleaning oven when it was 90+ degrees outside. Yowza.

18 comments:

  1. oooh! i never had an mp3 player either, and T just talked me into a black.berry. i have to admit that i love it.

    that bread picture is hilarious! im sure not so in person!

    ive been thinking about you. glad you checked in ;)

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  2. OMG, I just had to comment on the bread! That has totally happened to me. It was so disgusting and sticky and my self-cleaner function was a bust. Ick. Glad you shared...I don't feel so stupid! :)

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  3. Happy bday!!! I recently have started running. I couldn't do it without my new ipod (also a recently acquired first MP3 player...I am slow to embrace new technology). I LOVE it.

    So sorry about the bread. :(

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  4. Happy birthday chiquita - it's our birthdays here as well and we seem to share a few things in common...

    ...like my DH finally got an MP3 player for the very first time for his bday 3 days ago

    ...like I was at a wedding Friday night and heard a Debbie Gibson song for the first time in about 20 years and it has been the only song running around in my head since then

    ...like I've had overflowing dough before too in the baking department. I think I mixed up fast rising for traditional so the dough was rising a zillion times faster than it was supposed to

    I'm glad your "wins" list is so much longer than your losses (although yeasty bread all over the oven is pretty awful especially to clean up!)

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  5. Glad you had a good birthday!!! Oh my, that oven, I don't envy you having to clean that!

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  6. I love Debbie Gibson and Rick Astley...bring back the '80s. LOL. I'm so happy you had such an awesome birthday.

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  7. Happy birthday, LC! It sounds like you had a wonderful birthday week (bummer about the bread mess). I'll have to check out Gordoughs the next time I'm in Austin.

    T.

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  8. Mmmmm...where is Gordoughs? That must be a new addition since I left Austin, or just not in my neck of the woods. Sounds delish!
    And welcome to the world of technology. I could not manage my NYC commute without my trusty i.Po.d.
    I'm glad you had a mostly good birthday celebration!

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  9. I should listen to myself about the glide. ;) Impressed by the long runs, my friend. I was happy with my wimpy 3.5 this morning!

    STILL have to try gordough's. Mr. Hope doing the low-carb thing at the moment, so I can't convince him...maybe you can text me on your new smartphone the next time you are going. Hint, hint. ;)

    Aww, so sad about the bread. Wonder what happened this time? Baking is so odd sometimes.

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  10. Happy Birthday!! Sorry about the bread but the picture made me LOL!

    I need to think of other fun running tips to pass along to you :) Glide is the absolute best thing ever!! I can't run without it (especially right now). I wish I liked running with music but I never have. I use it as my thinking time or chatting time instead. I hope you love using your MP3 player!

    Thanks so much for your sweet note. I really appreciate it and needed the smile it brought on!

    Lastly, where do you get these Gordough's? Maybe B and I need to split one when we are in town again. Or maybe you and I could meet for a treat (girls only :))!

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  11. What is a smart phone? We still get the free phone deals w/o the full keyboard. It takes me forever to text. I can't say we're cheap b/c we have an ipod touch that is collecting dust. We're just not "with it." When we need tech help, we call on a friend's teenager.

    Happy Birthday! Glad you had some "wins." Your picture is the reason I don't bake much anymore. And the last time I used the self cleaning oven feature, I was freaked out by the small fire inside. I still don't know if that's suppose to happen!

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  12. Love my ipod! And it's full of 80s music, since I can actually remember the 80s quite well... :-/

    Oh wow on the bread. I'm glad I didn't have to clean that up! I'm sure your next batch will be perfect though.

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  13. I second what Claudia said...oh that oven!!! I'm so glad we had our chat the other day. I miss you but know you are ALWAYS there for me. Happy Birthday again!!

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  14. Where to begin on the commenting? First of all, happy (belated) birthday!

    MP3 player - I'm right there with you on the late 80s/early 90s songs. I have Debbie Gibson, Erasure, and a whole host of other embarrassing tunes on mine. ("The rhythm is gonna get you...")

    You've run practically an entire marathon in just a few days. I've probably barely run that in my entire life. Toying with the idea of setting a goal to run in a 5k at the beginning of the year, if I can talk R into joining me.

    Congrats on the lamp. The mister sounds very handy! :-)

    Jealous of fictional TV characters is totally normal. I once wrote a very indignant letter of complaint to Dairy Queen when they did an absolutely ridiculous commercial with two waffle bowls (or was it ice cream cones) at a doctor's office talking about their infertility...

    The potential loss - I hate that stomach-tightening, slightly sick sinking feeling that those kinds of texts or phone calls can cause. If that is what her news is, I hope she's sensitive to your feelings when making the announcement.

    The epic fail - thank you for that. It helps to know that you are, after all, human when it comes to baking. I had a near-disaster on Monday - popped some mini-cheesecakes into the oven, went upstairs to put some laundry away, jumped in the shower and totally forgot about them until R got home from the store (about 20 minutes after they were supposed to be taken out and came upstairs to ask "Um, exactly how brown are those things supposed to get? Because they're really brown on top..." Oops. But if you take off that top slightly burned later, it was still decent cheesecake underneath. :-)

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  15. Happy Birthday and welcome to the 21st century!!

    That oven reminded me of Hansel and Gretel... not sure why, but it did.

    I want to make a prediction... this year you will have more WINS than LOSSES!!

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  16. Happy Birthday to you girlfriend! One of my very own "raised in the 80s" gals. And I don't mean to sound freaky (or geeky), but I LOVED Debbie Gibson. I had posters and shit of her all over my locker in school. I even copied how she wore hats in her videos (I never got into her "face drawing" on the knee thing). That's hilarous that you mentioned her.

    As for the bread, you're lucky you had the self cleaner oven! That golden bread still looked lovely. Ever try tandoori naan in the oven?

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  17. I love my iPhone!! I can't believe you did all that running in the past without music?! It's so much more fun to dance while you run!

    Perhaps the bread is some weird meltdown metaphor. I think I mentioned before that I spent my b-day reflecting on my epic losses/failures in life. Not fun.

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