Happy Halloween!

I was going to buy my husband a cute Halloween card, but then I saw a bunch of tiny pumpkins on they way home and decided to buy one and carve it for him instead (we used to carve pumpkins every year, but we've gotten out of the habit these last few). While there were a couple trucks in the parking area, there was no one tending to the cash register of the nursery except the resident black cat. He scratched his head by rubbing it on the end of my pen as I wrote a note and left the dollar under a ceramic turtle on the stand saying the cat was welcoming but couldn't seem to figure out how to push the buttons.

Once I'd finished the jack-o-lantern, I put it on B's dresser in the dark as a surprise. It had an amazing amount of seeds so I roasted them up for an extra treat.

He got me a sweet card with a little bird on it offering another bird a piece of candy corn.

Faint Like Dreams

Small fish peered up from the edge of the pond. They were faint like dreams upon waking.

Yeah, I could have said I went for a run in the park, stopped by the pond and saw some fish, but I felt like waxing poetic.

On My Desk

My friend just found this awesome blog called On My Desk. It's pretty self explanatory; there are pictures and stories about what is on people's desks, but not just any people - wild and crazy creative people!

Have you seen those awesome animated shorts of bunnies reenacting popular movies? No? Yes? Either way, here's what the desk of the creator looks like! Now go watch some bunny movies.

Here's a look at my space.

I Did Bad Things to Carrots Today

I hate when I waste hours in the kitchen only to have what I'm doing come out crappy. Hate it. Waste of time. Waste of food.

My intentions were good. There is a Carrot Ginger soup that I love at a restaurant we frequent. As luck would have it, I was paging through my Moosewood cookbook today and there was a recipe for it: Gingered Carrot Soup! Number one - no way is this the same recipe they use in the restaurant. Number two - I knew one and a half teaspoons of salt was waaaaaaaaaaaay too much. What were they thinking? I've been cooking for years and I do all right, but do I trust my instincts? No. I put in the salt. Result: recipe should be called Salt With a Hint of Carrot soup.

So carrots, two pounds of lovely orange carrots, please accept my deepest apology that ending up in my crappy soup was your fate. You were planted, you grew, were trucked in to my store from wherever you put down roots only to meet this demise. So sad. I promise to do better with the other three pounds still left in my fridge.*

*The store was out of one pound bags so I had to buy a five pound bag. Should have taken that as a sign.

Feel free to confess your food disasters here.

Black Diamond Off-Road Duathlon

The weather was absolutely gorgeous all week, but of course race day brought clouds, wind and a pocket of rain. The start was dry all the way through the 2 mile run, but the beginning of the 10 mile trail ride brought some chilling raindrops. Unlike running (at least for a long distance plodder like me), biking creates a lot more windchill so it's tough to want to keep a good pace. Part of the trail featured about a mile of single track through the trees that was really fun. Large roots and bridges were marked as "bike hazards." We kind of laughed at that because where we usually go the whole trail would be marked "bike hazard."

I had signed up B telling him "it'll be fun!" That's always my ploy, LOL. I didn't see him after the first mile, but he caught up to me on the bike just like he said he would. I stopped to drink some iced tea and put on my rain coat so that bought him a little time. He beat me to the bike drop off and then said he was done. That was a bummer, but he runs about 10 miles a year, and we hadn't trained for this at all. I talked him into walking with me for about 20 yards into the last 2 miles when he showed me he'd already taken off his timing chip. He was feeling fine, and didn't see any point in making that not the case so called it quits. The difference between us is I only aim to finish, and he wants to do well. I could care less how I measure up against the rest. I know I'm not fast, but B wants to be good. He urged me to get going and of course there was no way I was going to get a DNF (did not finish). 20 minutes later I was cruising to the finish.

We cheered on a few other people, and as we watched a couple came through and crossed the line together. I said, "That could've been us!" Of course, there wouldn't be this picture of me hamming it up if he wasn't waiting at the end.

Tonight he asks me if there are any races coming up. I knew he'd be looking for redemption.