Burn out!

This was my weekend:
1. Friday night: Stay up too late watching Mystery Science Theater.
2. Saturday morning: Up at crack of dawn for 6 miler. Worst run in months: too tired, too hot and humid. I felt awful and slow the whole time.
3. Saturday: Quick shower, head to work for a 9 hour day. Remember, no lunch breaks and stand up the whole time.
4. Work day: Listen to a few dozen people tell you lies to your face. Pretend you believe that they really did get in a car accident in which their Vicodin was crushed by the steering wheel. But their blood pressure meds were not. Tell at least 100 more people that their controlled substance refill is too early. Be cursed at. Highlight: A customer brings in a loaf of homemade bread that he sells at the farmer's market; says he's bringing the farmers market to me since I can't make it to the farmer's market.
5. Saturday night: Get off at six, race home, change into something cute and white, head out the door for White Linen Night, an event which started at six pm. Take the most packed streetcar ever downtown: standing room only, super hot, starting to regret shoe choice. Shuffle through packed streets full of other hot and sweaty white-clad people; attempt to look at art in the galleries; the only galleries with A/C on are packed; near heat exhaustion. Just as we wiggle through the crowds to the car, see the owners of a neighborhood bar. Be stricken with guilt for not ever getting a drink at said bar, when friends own the place. Make half-hearted promises to come grab a drink later. Drive home. Peel painful shoes off and examine new blisters. Drag bleary-eyed self down the street for promised drink. Fall asleep in martini.
7. Sunday morning: refuse to get out of bed. Give hubby detailed explanation as to why sleeping in is mandatory and marathon training is canceled, all while sound asleep. Be persuaded out of bed by hot coffee at the bedside (thanks, hubs). Wake up all the way and realize that your house looks like a bomb went off. Start frantic cleaning spree (cut short by work). Head to work.
8. Work day: Give first flu shot of the season. Field another 50 fabricated stories in an attempt to get early refills. Look around and realize that of the 30 people milling around the pharmacy, 29 have drugs-glazed eyes and the one who doesn't is your technician. Start fixing the rx robot and realize that it has been messing up because an employee had pushed all the wrong settings for no apparent reason. Attempt to eat chicken wings at work. Fail.
9. Sunday night: Rush home! Frantically change into workout clothes, wondering why sleeping in sounded like a good idea this morning. Speedwork in 97 degrees (at 6 pm) is misery. Return pouring sweat. Attempt cold shower. Water will not run cold; even the cold faucet is hot. Change into cute dress. Sweat in cute dress. Stick hair in fugly ponytail and join hubby for brother's farewell dinner (he's moving for graduate school). Get half-way to restaurant; turn around and go home to get forgotten coupon. Make it to restaurant and are seated in the veranda area, which is closed in with plastic much like a greenhouse. Commence more sweating. Nearly faint at the suggestion of French onion soup; order salad instead. Ready to go home. Charming waiter is telling us about his trip to Argentina. The story takes half an hour. Have to finish house-cleaning spree before bed. Toss and turn all night in the relentless heat.
10. Monday morning: Refuse to get out of bed. Hold still-asleep argument with hubby about when to go running. Pull sticky sheets over head. Finally wake up and discover that it is raining. Drink coffee and blog instead of running.
And now...off to work!
Happy Monday kids :)

Foody Friday: Ridiculously Healthy Muffins

A little bit about my meals at work: I don't get them. No lunch break, no coffee break, no dinner break. Honestly I'd be hard pressed for a minute to grab a bag of peanut butter cups off the shelf to stuff into my mouth between phone calls. My work is INSANELY busy but I need to find a way to eat during the day!
One solution, besides pre-cut fruit and veggies (easy to eat between, you know, phone calls) is nutrient-packed muffins. They are the perfect work food because:
1. They freeze beautifully and defrost wonderfully.
2. They're portable.
3. They can contain complex carbs, protein, fat, and fiber to keep you full (maybe even trick your tummy into thinking you got lunch).
4. They happen to be yummy.
I like to make a big batch of muffins and freeze all but a few of them. I bring one to work straight out of the freezer; usually it is defrosted and perfect by the time I want to eat it (if it is still kind of chilly I microwave it for 5-10 seconds).
My recipe? Well, it constantly evolves. I'm going to ask you to be brave here. I'm asking you to make muffins without a recipe. It's not hard, because I do it all the time.* Here is my back-bone "recipe":

2 eggs, beaten (or egg substitute - soy flour plus water or flax etc)
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (or more - many home bakers do not add enough salt and the finished product is yucky)

Add:
- Some fruit or veg component, 2-3 cups: grated carrots or zucchini, applesauce, pineapple, mashed banana, chopped apple, whatever you have on hand. This adds moisture.
- Sweetener: I use honey, molasses, sometimes maple syrup. If the batter looks too moist, I may use brown sugar to prevent thin batter. I add to taste (yeah, I taste my batter - I use soy flour instead of egg so this is safe).
- Nuts
- Dried fruit: It tastes best if briefly soaked in a little hot water before adding.
- Spices

Optional:
- Fats. If you added any kind of mashed or pureed fruit, you don't need any fats. But suppose all you added was grated carrots - then you'll need some sort of fat to hold the batter together. I use sour cream - about 1/4 cup. If you don't do dairy you can use oil.
- Oats. I generally add oats to the batter last so I can see how wet my batter is. You do not want this to be a very wet batter: moist and lumpy is what you're going for. After adding the oats, let the batter sit for at least 5 minutes. This allows the oats to soften and the leavening process initializes. Since muffins don't take long to cook, they don't have a lot of time to rise. These muffins are so heavy they need a little extra help!

Once your batter is ready, spoon it into greased muffin tins (don't stir it down). I usually get 15 muffins from this "recipe". Bake at 350 until done (check at 10 minutes but may take longer).
When the muffins are done, allow to cool for a minute or two while you lay out squares of plastic wrap. Put warm muffins on the wrap and wrap up. The plastic seals because of the heat and keeps the moisture in. Let cool to room temp, then freeze.

Some recent combinations I've made:
- Apples, carrots, raisins, walnuts, applesauce, cinnamon, nutmeg
- Bananas, pineapple, dried coconut, dried mango (no oats)
- Carrots, molasses, candied ginger, sultanas, pecans, ginger, cloves, cinnamon

Try some and see if you don't love it...then share your recipes with me :)
*Actually I sold muffins at a health food store when I was a teenager; this is when I developed my backbone recipe and my muffin-wrapping technique!

Longish run and why I love Google Maps

What the heck, two posts today. I'm off work :)
Today was a step-back week in marathon training, and boy was I glad to just do ten miles. For some reason my quads have been KILLING me lately, and I rarely get sore muscles. I was also pleased to have a shorter run because I didn't get out of bed. It is SO HARD to roll out of bed at the crack of dawn knowing that it's a day off! So I didn't. I slept in. Then it looked stormy out, so I postponed my run. I made muffins while I waited for the rain to start. That way, I'd be out of the house running while the deathly hot kitchen cooled down (my kitchen A/C is out, remember?). Cle-vah!
Well, I finally got all my gear together at about 10:45 am. I planned to do this route:

only it would be over ten including the run to and from my house. Never fear, Google Maps to the rescue! I always use Google Maps to calculate my actual distance because I don't have a Garmin or other fun toys. This route is amazing because it covers a gigantic section of the city. There are a few problems, though. It goes through high traffic areas with hot cars, construction, and lots of stops for one. That bites. It also has a few blocks of slightly shady areas...crime shady, I mean. Not tree shady. This is a really sunny route. My last problem was water. There are no public fountains along the way. I fixed this by carrying a bottle and sneaking my sweaty self into a Walgreens and a Rite Aid on the route. Tip for other NOLA runners: Rite Aid on St Charles and Louisiana has a cold water cooler by the pharmacy!
I was enjoying my run until I hit the tourist-y section of Canal Street. The weather was surprisingly cool and breezy - not sure the temp, but definitely under 90 (at mid-day!). The sun- and people - came out on Canal, and then, um, I got lost. Somehow I missed St. Charles! I ended up running all the way to the river, then doubling back in confusion, then making some big loop... and finally finding St Charles. Then I promptly ran the opposite way on St Charles until I realized my error. After I hit St Charles I felt like I was almost home (although the stop at Rite Aid was most welcome. My water was all hot by then).
After the run I used trusty ol' Google Maps AGAIN to find out how far I actually went. I really ran 12.2. So much for a ten miler.
Since it's summer, talk to me about your water stops. How often? Do you carry a bottle? Are you insane, like one of my friends, who never drinks on the run (even ten miles)?

Cooking in cast iron

This morning a 25% coupon showed up in my mail box for...
Lodge Logic cast iron skillets from World Market! (As a World Market Explorer member I receive emailed offers; you can sign up here. I do it for the occasional wine discount.)
I would love to run out and buy a skillet, but I really need* a whole set of cast iron. My only cast iron pot is an enormous dutch oven. In a perfect world I would also have a smaller dutch oven, three high-sided skillets in various sizes (WITH LIDS), and a saucepan.
I have not made these purchases because cast iron is hard to find and expensive, and it's not a need right now. We have a set of pots and pans which has the unique ability to burn everything placed inside, yet takes an hour to boil water thanks to crappy heat dispersion, all while super-heating the handle to the detriment of the chef. Once these pans bite the dust (one handle is partially detached; another pan has developed an odd dark silver crust that scares me), I will start buying cast iron. It's my cookware of choice, and here is why:
- It retains and conducts heat so well that you can use less energy (I turn my stove off a few minutes before food is cooked).
- It cooks evenly and browns perfectly
- It is naturally non-stick
- You shouldn't put it in the dishwasher, but stuck food slides easily off a well-seasoned surface.
- If you end up eating a little pan (we all do at some point), you just got your daily dose of iron - not your daily dose of toxic copper or Teflon.
- It is safe for stove, oven, and fire (and honestly you CAN put it in the dishwasher if you have to).
- It is low-maintenance. Despite complex info on "curing" or "seasoning" your cast iron, most pots will regularly cure themselves, simply from normal use (but do cure a new pan at least once and never cure with oil, always solid fat).
- It looks hard-core and awesome as a serving dish.
- It's resilient and tough. My parents bought cast iron when they got married and I learned to cook with it. It's still in use at their house over 30 years and nine kids after it was purchased!
Are you a cast-iron fan? What are you cooking in these days? And don't say microwaveable tupperware or I'll openly mock you! (J/K)
*strongly desire. And I may have sent a link for some nice pans to the hubby. My birthday is coming up!

Cheap date Wednesday: Shakespeare

A few weeks ago hubby and I decided last minute to attend a play at Tulane University. Each year the college hosts a Shakespeare festival; part of it is a two-week summer camp for teens that culminates in a performance of a Shakespeare play. Bad idea, right? A bunch of summer campers with braces attempting soliloquy? Cringe-worthy Old English?
Not at all! We were presently surprised with our cheap date, and here's why:
1. It's really cheap: $13 a ticket is close to movie prices these days and at least $10 less than the other festival performances.
2. THESE KIDS WERE AMAZING. I'm serious. This was one of the better versions of The Tempest that I've seen. Every single actor knocked it out of the park! I was very impressed that they got this together in just two weeks, but I was more intrigued by the obvious talent on that stage. Wow!
3. Charmingly laid back, yet professional. Not stuffy (I wore a sundress; the stage had basically one set), but this wasn't a community theater-type event with mostly family in the audience.
Best of all, the play was actually free for us: as we walked to the theater, someone behind us called to us and asked if we were going to the play. We said yes, and he handed us two tickets. "Merry Christmas, I had a last minute change of plans," he said. Awesome! Oddly, this is the second time someone has given us tickets for an event at Tulane; I decided that we must look very young and poor!
What cheap dates/events/fun things have you been up to?

College Majors

This month little brother Abe is starting school near me. He postponed college for a year or two while saving cash for tuition (all of us kids have done this and therefore started college late) and deciding on a major. What to major in is quite the question: Abe loves art, drama, music, and languages, but he also excels in the sciences. He considered artistic versus scientific (knowing Abe, he made a pros and cons list), and this Spring he was leaning towards a PA (physician's assistant) degree. I was hesitant to give approval to this choice - I think there is value to a PA degree, but it's a limited field. However, Abe changed his mind and is going whole hog medical school. At least, so he says for now.
I was kind of in Abe's situation when I started college back in 2001*. I went to school on an art scholarship, and eight years later I was a pharmacist! We both are mostly right brain in interests and abilities, but can do left brain tasks as well. I started out in art, but quickly realized that I could do well enough in more scientific areas to pursue any number of careers. I changed my major from studio art to biology after two years, and went on to pharmacy school. Abe's major is biology for now, but I'm wondering if he'll change his mind once he starts classes.
From an unofficial poll, I gather that a lot of students change majors during college. Did you? Was it a drastic change? Did you lose credit hours? After two years of art classes my only pre-pharmacy requirement that I had met was freshman English!
* But not really. Abe is all brilliant and stuff and taught himself Mandarin. And he runs a 4:19 mile. So I don't really hold a candle to Abe. Ah, little brothers! First they get all tall and bigger than you, then they whoop your academic record!

Bay St Louis Weekend

Hubby and I spent a much-needed weekend at Bay St Louis. We:
- Biked at the beach

- Swam in the oil-free bay (a stingray swam over my foot!)
- Ate crab legs
- Watched Top Gear (we don't have cable so we tape it at the in-laws and watch it when we have a chance to be in Bay St Louis). Do you watch this show? It is hysterical and fascinating, even if you aren't half-boy like me.
- Ran over the tall Bay Bridge, which gave us some hills training! The bridge is 2.1 miles, so we ran out and back. As we neared the end we passed a runner going the opposite direction. As we made the turn, I challenged hubby to catch and beat the runner on the way back. At this point I abandoned hubby because for some reason running at his slower pace hurts my knees. I waited at the end of the bridge for him to finish and he DID catch up to the other runner, just beating her at the end! This is a big deal for hubby, who is the least competitive person alive.
- Got bizarre tan lines. My thighs were already sharply brown and white thanks to my running shorts tan line; I added a pink stripe of sunburn during our bike ride. Now I have Neopolitan legs!
It's obvious why we ended up a little burned this weekend: the sun was unrelenting. The past few days have been extremely hot, temps over 100 and heat index around 115. However, I think we've gotten off pretty easy this year - even though our kitchen A/C is broken (boo). Last year the heat was much more brutal, and this year it seems that other areas of the country have had more heat waves than we have. We've been doing our steady high 90's thing for a month now, but at least that's normal temps!
How have you been dealing with the heat? Are you in a heat-wave area?
PS - I shamelessly photoshopped my hubby's sweat stain off his T-shirt. I was tempted to skim a couple inches off my thighs, too, but I decided that was cheating.