Exciting things are happening here!

I was having too much fun yesterday playing with Windows Live Writer to actually post! Thank you guys for all your advice on my blogging issues. Feel free to give me more if you think of anything you with you knew back when! Also, if you never saw before, please feel free to answer any questions on my last post. Life is already better with my Live Writer! Whenever I say Live Writer, I think of Ghostwriter. You guys remember that show?

It’s been freaking hot and humid here in the Midwest. If I didn’t need to leave the house, I would know from the complaints all over Facebook and Twitter. It’s ridiculous. I’m pretty sure these are all from the people hating on winter and asking for summer. You want summer? You get summer! I on the other hand do not do well with humidity or heat. I get angry and cranky. I will yell at inanimate objects in front of others. I will growl. All these have happened in the past 24 hours. But the positive is, I still forced myself to run yesterday and today! I sweated off my sunscreen in the first two minutes yesterday. I wish I brought a camera, because it was disgusting. I was supposed to do nine miles, but I called it quits after 4. No use beating a dead horse. Or a dead Alisa.

So today I went with a different approach. Short and sweat. I mean sweet. Sprintervals it is! I did a five minute warm up and cool down, but in between was the sweet. 45 seconds all out sprint, 60 second recovery, repeat ad nausuem. or at least ad sweatuem. But what killed it, was my kick A playlist. I made a summer runs playlist in June and just haven’t been feeling it, until this heat wave.

I may have lost about a total of 8 pounds of pure sweat the last two days, but at least I rocked out while doing it.

 

Do you use playlists to change your mood about a workout?

Always! I also use them according to seasons and upcoming events. My Christmas playlist is fantastical!

What’s your favorite season?

Winter, without a doubt. I’m not a huge fan of cold, but I’m a follower of the idea that you can always put on more layers. You can only take off so many before you get in trouble. Spring comes in a distant second, only because I love that moment were everything turns green!

BFD and tornado sirens!

BFD does not stand for:

Big Furry Dinosaur

Beautiful Friendly Dog

But it does stand for:

Breakfast for Dinner

And that's what I consumed tonight. There are a lot of big changes at work right now, so when I get home, I'm too exhausted to make it up the stairs. The big wigs were in today finalizing some plans (both to the business side of things AND the actual building), so I ran around working about 5 times harder than usual. My head hurts and English is hard. I needed easy food that was also comforting. And what's more comforting than blueberry waffles? Nothing. Maybe chocolate chip pancakes, but we're trying to be healthy here. Plus it's the first day of summer, time for berries!

I threw together a quick batch of these babies with Canadian bacon on the side and a nice big helping of "homemade" strawberry syrup. Yum!

Make sure to oil up your iron really well. Otherwise you end up with a waffle like this!

Blueberry Waffles:

1 cup AP flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 oat flour
1 TBLS baking powder
1 TBLS sugar
2 TBLS flax meal (also labeled as ground flax seeds)
1 TSP salt

3 eggs
4 TBLS grapeseed oil
1 TBLS honey
1 TBLS vanilla
zest of one lemon

1 cup blueberries

1. Sift together all dry ingredients in one bowl.
2. Whisk up eggs in another bowl. Combine all other wet ingredients into the bowl. Slowly whisk dry into wet. Once JUST combined, stir in blueberries.
3. Follow directions with your waffle iron to make waffles. (Made about 6 Belgian ones for us)

Fresh off the iron!

Strawberry Syrup: This is one of those things I make, but don't have a recipe for. It's too easy to have something formal. I'll try my hardest.

Slice up tons of strawberries. Throw in a small saucepan with some syrup. Cook on low for awhile. Strawberries will soften and the syrup will taste fruity. Serve on anything! (use as much of either as you want. Like tons of fruit? Use more berries or less syrup. Want to serve a crowd? Throw in more of both. You can even add some honey or sugar and water to stretch it out more.)

Keep dinner in the over set at warm for roommates who want to come home late!

I enjoyed this meal with a nice semi-sweet white wine. A Traminette, to be exact. My favorite type of wine is a Gewurztraminer (trying ordering that after a few glasses...), and the Traminette is a newer varietal of the same family. If you like semi-sweet wines, I suggest trying both. A Gewurtz is really good with Asian food, in case you were wondering.



As I was finishing up this post the emergency warning sirens came on, or as they are known in the midwest, tornado sirens. I quickly turned on the weather report and it said a tornado touched down in the town next to us just a few miles away. I quickly turned off my computer, grabbed my purse, phone, dog, and hoodie and ran downstairs with the roommates. After twenty minutes, the sirens turned off and all was clear.

This was Guinness's first encounter with the sirens at night and not as a practice the first tuesday of the month at 10am. ON top of us being a little spooked and grabbing all of our stuff and flashlights, we were franticly trying to remember all the stuff we needed to remember. Do we light candles? Do I need to grab a can of soup? I grabbed G's leash and put it on. Safety first, right? Yeah, in dog language purse + leash = car ride = fun. Then she heard the sirens. The poor thing is still confused.

So, crisis averted. Just a confused dog. I have my fingers crossed that my work was hit and I don't have to go in tomorrow. HAHAHA.

Pictures from a tornado down the street from me about a year ago (sorry about the crappy phone pictures):

Tornadoes... something I will not miss when I move away. I think I need another waffle. I burnt a lot of calories running around in panic mode.