Your call cannot be completed as dialed.

On Sunday, the weather was gorgeous. Even though I had gone hiking the day before and had planned to spend all of Sunday being responsible and doing grown-up chores, the day was so sunny and warm, the bright blue sky polka-dotted white with clouds, that I kept staring through the windows, wishing I were out there. By mid-day I couldn’t resist the temptation anymore, and I put on my hiking boots and drove to a nearby nature trail, just to get outside for a little bit without blowing off too many other things. It’s a short walk, just a quick two miles on a beautiful trail that winds through the woods and then turns to boardwalk over a marsh formed by a natural spring.

My mom called me while I was out there (and I answered, because I always answer), and I talked to her for a few minutes, and then suddenly in mid-sentence my mom was no longer there. Instead, I could hear ringing, like you do when you call someone and you’re waiting for them to pick up. When I took the phone away from my ear and looked at it, wondering what the hell was happening, the screen showed a call in progress with my friend Marcia. As I stared it, the call disconnected, just as mysteriously as it had begun. When I fumbled with the phone, disconcerted, it dialed Marcia again, and this time I let it ring and ring. I didn’t expect her to answer. She didn’t.

Marcia had been dying from lung cancer for two years. In the last few weeks, she stopped answering her phone, and responding to emails or text messages. She and her daughter board their horses at a barn near my house, and I would go visit them when our schedules coincided. The last time I stopped by, her daughter was there alone, which was when I really knew Marcia was almost gone. Nothing kept her from the barn. That’s the way it is with horse people.

I’m sure you all know where this is going. On Monday morning the word went out, via email and Facebook and phone call and text message, that Marcia had died on Sunday.

But I think I knew that already. I knew, as I stood there on the boardwalk on a beautiful day and watched my phone futilely dial a number will never be answered again, that she was already gone.

Marcia Bobek

Image Description: Boardwalk through a grassy marsh, blue sky and green trees in the background.

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Priorities = Straight

I caught some kind of death plague thing with a cough that’s been dragging on and on, and because of that I was forced (FORCED, I TELL YOU!) to consume many, many cups of tea loaded with Bailey’s Irish Cream. What? It’s a known cure for anything. Truthsies!

During that time I had to make a very necessary run to the Wal-Marts to get toilet paper and Kleenex and shampoo, and also essentials. Pictured below: essentials.

I curse the person who introduced me to these.

They were actually quite disappointing–not very cinnamonny at all–and have since been relegated to the work break room, along with a box of chocolates, some chocolate-covered almonds, and few other things that came my way around Christmas that I will never finish. I can’t even eat candy right.

Posted in Eating, Healing | Comments Off

The Choice

My boss is on vacation this week. 2012 may never get better than it is right now.

In other news, I had to stop at Target last week to get a few things, one of which was a new little notebook for my bag, because I filled the last one with notes for a story I wrote back in December. I have some very specific requirements for this notebook, in that it has to be small and not too bulky, it needs to be semi-flexible so I can cram it in my bag, and it has to be the spiral kind so I can flatten it on the passenger seat of my car and scribble in it while I’m doing 80mph on the freeway.

Well, apparently blank books and notebooks are a really popular holiday gift item, because the entire section was decimated, and what remained didn’t offer many options that fit my specifications. So I checked them all and could only find one that was even remotely doable, and then I went back and checked them all again just in case, and it was still the only one that fit all my requirements, and that’s how I ended up with this:

Posted in Laughing, Writing | 2 Comments »

Year In Review

Whoops! Sneaking this under the wire. Basically, 2011 was a rollercoaster for me. It started off pretty good, then was pretty awesome, and then got shitty and stayed shitty for a while, and just recently began an uptick. So I guess I’d like to try to maintain that upward momentum going forward.

1. What did you do in this year that you’d never done before?

Went to Colorado! Which was not really as awesome as my trip to Hawaii the year before, if I’m honest. But I did go hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, and I also sat in a hot tub while it snowed, watching horses graze in the pasture. So that was pretty awesome.

I also started talking Pilates classes, which I love.

2. Did you achieve your goals, and will you make more for this year?

Goals for 2011 were:

-Meditate at least once a week.
-Spend less time online.
-Write at least three stories
-Improve my posture

One thing I’ve discovered is that I do better with more specific goals, rather than the ongoing “I’ll do this more!” kind of goals, which can quickly feel overwhelming and like I’m not really accomplishing anything other than adding another task to the endless assembly line that is daily life. I’m keeping that in mind for 2012.

I did the meditation stuff fairly regularly, though if it was once a week or more or less I can’t say. I kind of fell off the wagon on this in December, as I spent most of my free time this past month writing (3-4 hours of sleep a night, people–I am too old for that shit).

I did actually manage to spend less time online earlier this year, which really helped me in a lot of ways because I got more stuff done around the house and spent more time outside when the weather permitted, which just makes life better all around…until recently. Until The Avengers, I mean specifically. Damn that first blush of fandom love.

I did finish three stories! Two of them are posted, and hopefully the third will see the light of day soon! I have several others in various stages of completion, and hope to get those done in 2012.

I have worked on my posture, with the help of Pilates.

In keeping with the desire to make my goals for 2012 more quantitative, I’ve decided I will:

-write at least five stories
-read at least five books
-create at least five fannish things that are not stories (graphics etc)
-finally do that damn elephant Pilates move without adding an extra spring
-do 200 Sit-Ups

And lastly, though this may go out the window immediately, I want to attempt Inbox Zero. This is without a doubt the most terrifying of my goals. And if I want to start right away, I’ll have to deal with several hundred emails tomorrow. /o\

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Depends on what you define as close. But there were a lot of babies around.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit?

Just the one I live in.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

Answers from last year: Money. New glasses. A new pair of riding boots. Gym membership (so I can run inside heehee).

Of those, I got the new glasses, and I do have a little more breathing room in my budget now. So I guess the new riding boots are still on the table, and I’d also like to get some snowshoes. Since I’m taking Pilates classes, I’m scrapping the gym membership thing.

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

May 14th, the day of my birthday party.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I wrote, all total, about 100,000 words of fiction in 2011, which has to be a record for me. I think it’s pretty awesome.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I let some stuff get on top of me mentally in October and November, things I feel like I should have been able to deal with without curling up in a fetal ball.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I sprained my ankle really, really badly in August. It’s still not fully healed.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

I added a package to my cable (for a mere $4.13 a month!) that enabled me to get BBC America. I did this on New Years Eve 2010 and it has made for a really fucking awesome 2011. Top Gear! Graham Norton! Doctor Who! Well worth the four bucks a month.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

All my friends and family who traveled to make it to my 40th birthday party. <3

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Anyone who thinks SOPA is a good idea.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Horses are expensive, dude.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

My big crazy birthday party. <3

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?

I and Love and You [YouTube link] by The Avett Brothers, which I listened to on pretty steady repeat while writing Semaphore.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? thinner
iii. richer or poorer? richer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Baking! I got some really awesome baking stuff for my birthday, and have barely used it.

Also, blogging here. I started out with a bang, and then life got on top of me and by the time I had things sorted, I had kinda gotten out of the habit.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Letting my boss get under my skin with his abusive bullshit.

20. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve?

Home alone, which is my tradition. (Start as you intend to go on, and all that.)

22. Did you fall in love in 2011

Yes. WITH THE AVENGERS. <3

23. How many one-night stands?

I did spend one evening reading Whose Line Is It Anyway? fan fiction, if that’s what you mean.

24. What was your favorite TV program?

New show would be American Horror Story. Still love The Walking Dead, too. (And still having nightmares because of it, but in the last one the Avengers showed up and killed the zombies, so yay for fannish mash-up nightmares.)

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I don’t think so.

26. What was the best book you read?

I…think I read some books? I know I must have. I remember when I read books all the time, but over the years I’ve read less and less than ever, mostly because I couldn’t afford books (and when I decided to use the library instead…well, I could have bought MANY, MANY books with what I paid in fines, so that was a big fail). And I mainly use my Kindle to read fan fiction, and even then I don’t have much time to read, really. I miss it. Which is why I made reading part of my goals for 2012.

27. What was your greatest musical (re)discovery?

The Avett Brothers.

28. What did you want and get?

My writing mojo back.

29. What did you want and not get?

For my boss to get his act together so we don’t have to sweat payroll twice a month. The next person who tells me we need more small business owners in government, because they know what they’re doing and how to run things, is getting kicked in the nads.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?

Captain America!! Second would be The Wacky Marital Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 40 and had a party for 100 people and it was fucking awesome, and my BFFGs (Best Friend Fangirls) came to town and we saw Thor and it was the best weekend of my whole year. <3 <3

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

If my neighbor’s stereo had blown up, and taken him with it.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

Black and made by LL Bean or Old Navy.

34. What kept you sane?

My horse.

35. Which celebrity/public figure/fictional character did you fancy the most?

Captain America! Steve Rogers, how are you so perfect?

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

Fucking SOPA.

37. Who did you miss?

Some of my blogging friends who have wandered away. I know a lot of them are on Tumblr, but it’s not the same.

38. Who was the best new person you met?

I don’t know if I have an answer for this one.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.

It’s never too early in the day to start drinking.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

I hear in my mind all these voices
I hear in my mind all these words

This is how I feel when I write, and it feels good to have that back.

Tags: year in review
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No gnus is good gnus.

Well, for the last couple months I’ve been working on a really fun project, and it’s been eating up a lot of my time, and I’ve also been hoping it’d get the green light and then I could talk about it here, but now word has been slow in coming, and I’ve realized that I need to just get on with my life. So even though I’d hoped to come back here with some Big! Exciting! News! I guess all you get is the astounding information that when it is hot, you should drink water.

Hey, remember when I said that maybe a cool spring would mean a cool summer. Ha! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

No, my friend, it did not! In fact, it was really, truly, terribly awful (112 degrees WTF?) and I hated it so much.

I almost never drink chilled water, except when it is really, truly, terribly, awfully hot. And then, in my refrigerator, I keep a pitcher of water, with a lemon squeezed in and then the halves dropped into the water, and a couple sprigs of mint snipped from my patio planter. (Muddle them first for extra minty flavor, if you are inclined.)

This keeps surprisingly well, and I usually refill the water once or twice before chucking the plant matter, though it gets less flavorful each time. And then when you grind it up in your garbage disposal, your sink smells lovely!

I took this on a day when the heat index was well into the 100s. I was outside for about three minutes, and I came back into the house drenched in sweat. And then I poured myself a big glass of this and hoped I wouldn’t die of heat stroke.

Tags: i hate the heat
Posted in Eating, Sweating | No Comments »

Birthday!

It was already two weeks ago, but time has flown by, so here is my post about my lovely, lovely birthday!

I turned 40 this year, so I decided to throw a big-ass party for myself. I started planning it about a year and a half ago (and it was sort of frightening how many things I had to do in the last few weeks, and then the last few days, leading up to it, despite the fact that I’d been working on it for 18 months), and spent kind of an obscene amount of money on it. /o\

I rented the Retzer Nature Center , which is a fun and beautiful place, and also has a planetarium, so we had a planetarium show during the party!

I invited more people than the place could hold, and there were some nerve-wracking days where I was waiting for people to tell me they weren’t coming so I could relax about all of us fitting in the place, but in the end it all worked out. There were people from New Mexico, Illinois, California, Minnesota, New York, and all over Wisconsin, obvs. My grandparents came, which was wonderful, because they are in their 90s and it is hard for them to travel. My wonderful cousin, who runs a beautiful craft market in Madison, managed to make it, despite having her market open that day. The aunt who took me to Hawaii was there, and lots of horse friends, too, including a group who postponed leaving town for a show in order to make it. <3

Some of my fannish besties came for the weekend, which was completely awesome. chicklet_girl, carleton97, musesfool, and girlinthetrilby, came to town on Friday, and were tons of help both the day before and the day of the party, because I was insane and decided I wanted to do the food myself and that I wanted all finger foods, and it is a shit-ton of work to make appetizers for 100 people. (lallybroch had to cancel at the last minute, but sent a lovely bag of gifts, including a brand new pink plastic lawn flamingo, which was perfectly timed, as my old one is bleached out and needs to be tossed.) Fannish besties got me an inversion table! Which I am hoping to get set up this weekend, and give it a shot. I'm so excited! A friend of mine with back problems--from falling off horses, just like me--has one, and he says it really helps.

My friend alohatiki came from California, even though she was sick. You can see a post about the completely adorable bag she made for me here. (The black one with the Hello Kitty lining!)

My cousin Pete was there, and because he’s basically some kind of mad computer scientist, he brought the photo booth he built, and people got their pictures taken with Munchkins. (It was a Wizard of Oz theme, as that is one of my all-time favorite movies.) He was a total trooper and helped me out with other things, too, including hacking into the sound system so I could play my iPod playlist (including WoO soundtrack songs) during the party. \o/

I wore the most adorable and comfy ruby slippers ever (I’m afraid breaking the bottom of my tibia a few years ago has changed what kinds of shoes I can wear forever–I was happy to find something adorable that I could wear for more than five minutes) and I had my hair in cute little Dorothy ponytails, and it was generally a really fun party that went really fast, and there was a giant green and black cake at the end that was absolutely delicious.

And…I got a Kindle! Whee!

It was a ton of work, and a ton of fun, and so many people helped me out with it. I am the luckiest Dorothy in the world. <3 <3

Tags: birthday, kindle
Posted in Living | 1 Comment »

My willpower, let me show it.

In the last two weeks alone I’ve encountered:

Cake and ice cream. I passed on the ice cream, and asked for a corner piece of cake, which was small but had lots of frosting, because I pretty much eat cake just so I can have frosting. I got a couple forkfuls of frosting, and left most of the cake, so I got to have a little treat that I liked without eating a million empty calories.

Jimmy John’s sandwiches (FREE, office lunch). Oh, you guys. You guys. I love Jimmy John’s subs so much, and I love their pickles, and I even like their potato chips, despite not being much of a chip fan. But I passed. I ate the lunch I brought from home instead (braised cabbage and carrots–I should get a damn medal for this one, amiright?)

Bruegger’s bagels and cream cheese (co-worker’s treat). I adore bagels beyond belief, and I’m especially fond of Bruegger’s, which is one of the better bagel places in these parts. The damn things sat in the break room all day, and I had to look at them every time I went in there to get my apple, fill my water bottle, get my boiled egg. But I didn’t eat one.

Chocolate cupcakes. Didn’t touch ‘em.

Office brunch (for admin staff). Cheesy potatoes, breakfast casserole, bacon, waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, muffins. It was a whole spread. I ate a couple strawberries and drank a glass of orange juice. Then I went back to my desk and ate my boiled egg and my banana. (MEDAL.)

Post-Easter break room bounty. Fruit with dip, homemade pound cake, coconut cupcakes (SOB!)–someone brought in a ton of really yummy looking leftovers from their Easter brunch. I ate a piece of pineapple–no fruit dip–and left the rest alone.

Actually, screw the medal. I want a trophy.

A TROPHY MADE OF DELICIOUS BAGELS.

This picture of delicious bagels was taken by woodleywonderworks, and is seen here because of Creative Commons licensing, which is awesome and I wish more people did it!

Thursday: It was pretty nice on Thursday, so I went for a short hike after work, this time on one of the Scuppernong trails. I did the orange trail (4.2 miles), but I had a Garmin-related operator error, and my watch was paused for a while without me noticing it, which means my numbers are off: 3.69 miles.

Friday: Six Week 6 Pack Level One. I was planning this as a rest day, because I was planning to run a bunch of errands and bake a cake, but then while the cake was in the oven I did the first sequence of SW6P, plus some PT and stretching.

Saturday: Horseback riding lesson.

Sunday: I’m so glad the park was open on Easter, because it was gorgeous outside, so I went for a hike in the late morning before heading to my parents’ for Easter dinner. 5.61 miles.

Monday: Pilates class, one hour. “You’re so flexible,” my instructor said, gleefully. “I can really do some fun stuff with you!” Then she contorted me like a pretzel and hung me from a rack.

Tags: hiking, pilates, six week 6 pack
Posted in Eating, Sweating | 2 Comments »

MUST HAVE THE PRECIOUS.

It’s here! It’s here!

I mentioned last week that I had some new exercise DVDs on the way, plus another thing I was super excited about it. Which is…

A Garmin Forerunner!

So bright… so beautiful…

I have wanted one of these my entire life for several years, but let’s be honest, this is totally a luxury item, especially for someone who only dabbles in running like I do. But now that I’ve got a little more wiggle room in my budget, I decided to go ahead and buy one.

In the past, I’ve used Google Maps, and mapmyrun.com to figure out distances on the bicycle trail near my house, or on the roads around here, but neither one of them is a viable option for the trails in the parks, which aren’t always visible on the maps and satellite images. It’s always been a source of frustration that the trail maps tell you how long the entire trail is, but they don’t break down distances from point to point, or for the connector trails. Because Lapham is loaded with connector trails, and intersections where you can switch from one trail to another, it’s really easy to vary your course every time you go there, which is awesome! Except…if you do that, then you don’t really know how far you went. Hence my pining for a Garmin.

I took it out for the first time on Saturday, for a hike. It was a really good example of why you never use a new piece of equipment for the first time on race day–I made a bad call in activating the Auto Pause feature, which resulted in the thing pausing itself for several minutes unbeknownst to me. Then, in trying to turn off the Auto Pause, I screwed things up spectacularly and made it start displaying things I wasn’t trying to track, and then it kept shutting itself off, so I ended up not having any idea of how far I went. Which was a bummer. But that’s what a test run is for.

I then took it out on Monday night for my first outdoor run of the year, and had a much better experience (with the watch anyway–after I finished running I had to go back out on the trail with my car to retrieve my lungs). I didn’t use the Auto Pause, I locked the bezel, and I didn’t mess with it after I turned it on. Basically, I corrected all the mistakes I made the first time, and it worked perfectly.

Tags: hiking, my precious, pocket-sized drill sergeant, running
Posted in Liking, Sweating, Using | No Comments »

Mahalo

Back in November, I spent a week in Kauai and it was amazing. I went with my aunt (who chose me to go with her, and generously paid my way), and we had an unbelievably wonderful time. We turned out to be very compatible travelers; we enjoy a lot of the same things, are both early risers, and actually eat a very similar diet, so dealing with the logistics of where to go and what to eat and what to do and when to do it was nearly effortless, and left us with plenty of time and energy to wring every bit of fun out of our seven days. We also share a tendency to greet a challenge with stubbornness and humor, which comes in handy no matter where you go on vacation.

One thing we both love is hiking, and holy shit were the trails awesome. I’m used to hiking in the kettles, but this was a whole other level of steep. Adding to the challenge was the fact that there is almost no labeling or warning system for difficulty, and even when there is, it’s sometimes hilariously wrong–a trail that took us an hour to go a quarter of mile over near-vertical, rocky, muddy, rutted canyon ridges was billed as “an easy walk.” HA!

We did the trail anyway, even after we got in there and saw how hard it was. Plenty of other hikers were turning back, and I don’t blame them. The mud was like a layer of Crisco, slickly coating the rocks and our shoes, and if we hadn’t had walking sticks to help steady ourselves, we would have joined the muddy butt club a time or two (like some of the people we saw coming back out). It took us over double the time we had planned to get in and out, but we were elated that we’d done it. We had a total blast because of how hard it was, not despite it.

We went to bed pleasantly worn out each night, and woke up early to the wild roosters crowing in the dark. Every day there were more beautiful things to see, and more new things to try: fording a river, climbing a rock wall, swimming under a waterfall. My aunt went on her first trail ride, and I went on my first helicopter ride. (Neither of us threw up, though admittedly that was more of a worry for me.)

I was really proud of how much I was able to do. I wasn’t sore hardly at all, and at no point was I exhausted to the point of misery–we were done for the day and in bed by 8pm, and getting up with the roosters at 3am, but I woke up each day feeling refreshed and like I could do it all again.

This was exactly the kind of vacation I’ve been wanting to go on for years. The kind where you get up early, watch the sunrise, go do physically challenging stuff, try new foods, look at beautiful things, and then have a nice evening meal and chill out before going to bed feeling like you packed everything into the day you possibly could. I can’t begin to explain how grateful I am to my aunt for making that dream come true, and for being willing to take every step of it together, as we looked ahead to what was coming next and greeted it with more determination, and more laughter.

The day we left, we got up early and went for one last hike. It was a trail that would probably be labeled advanced here at home, and come with a map littered with ominous incline warnings, but after all we’d done it seemed positively easy, and we both commented that our legs didn’t feel tired, even after everything we’d done all week–they just felt strong. (This trail, which was much, much easier than the “easy walk” trail, was billed as “moderate.” Kauai, I love you, but your trail ratings make no sense.) After the things we’d done, it seemed easy–our perception of what we were capable of had changed. It was a feeling that I carried home with me.

A few years ago, it wouldn’t have been possible for me to go on this trip, and do what we did. My body was beaten up, uncooperative, deteriorating. My mental state wasn’t much better. Every run, every hike, every horseback ride, every yoga pose since then has been a small victory. This trip was the culmination of all those years of work to bring myself back from the brink of disability, of giving up on life. It was a long climb to the top of the cliff on the Kalalau trail, where I stood and looked down at the ocean gleaming in the sun like a bright blue jewel, and the trail we hiked to get there was only a fraction of the journey for me.

I came home feeling victorious, re-energized, grateful. Feeling like all the problems in my life, things that have weighed so heavily on me for months (in some cases, years) had suddenly shrunk in size.

Like I could hold them in my hand, and toss them into the ocean.

Tags: hiking, kauai
Posted in Living, Sweating, Traveling | Comments Off

And they called her the Irish Rover

Is there a name for the temporal anomaly that makes gaining an hour feel like you gained five minutes, but losing an hour feel like you lost half a day? Yes, complaining about Daylight Savings is completely cliche, but wow did today fly by. And the weekends are always too short as it is.

I made cupcakes this week, to take to the barn. I wanted to do something for St. Patrick’s Day, and these seemed perfect, until some of the moms would not let their kids eat them. I didn’t even think of it, because I always had foods made with alcohol (red wine in the spaghetti sauce, rum balls at Christmas, brandy sauce on meat, bread made with beer, etc) when I was growing up. It’s not like my parents were handing me a bottle of vodka and a shot glass–it’s cooked in food. But whatever. Lesson learned, I guess. I will have to make something the kids can eat next weekend.

Anyway, these cupcakes were AMAZING. They made a dense cake, but very moist, and the test batch were such a wonderful cream color, cake and frosting both. I did color the frosting when I made the actual full batch for the barn, because I love adorable things, and the green frosting would be like the hat on the little Irishman’s head.

Drunken Irishmen
Bailey’s Irish Cream Cupcakes
Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temp.
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups Irish Cream (I used Bailey’s)
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons milk
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. In a separate bowl or giant Pyrex measuring cup, combine the Irish Cream, water and milk. In another bowl, thoroughly combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, alternating with the liqueur mixture. Beat on medium speed for approximately 2 minutes.

Fill cupcake liners ¾ full and bake for about 25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Makes approximately 24 cupcakes (I got 22).

Bailey’s Irish Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Irish Cream, plus more for thinning as needed

Directions:

Cream the butter on high speed for approximately 3 minutes (I added green food coloring at this point). Add the Irish Cream and mix as best you can (I could not get it to incorporate well until I started adding sugar). Slowly add the powdered sugar until well blended. If necessary, add more Irish Cream to thin or more sugar to thicken as desired.

(I had way too much frosting when I made a half batch of cupcakes and frosting as a test batch, so foolishly did not make extra frosting when I made the final whole batch (piping usually uses more frosting), and then was a little short. If you’re gonna pipe your frosting, maybe make a batch and a half.)

Whiskey, you’re the devil and you’re leadin’ me astray!

Please excuse the cluttered countertop–I’d been busy in the kitchen, obvs.

WORKOUTS

Thursday: Rest day! I had a ton of things to do after work, including making two dozen cupcakes, so it ended up being a rest day. I did my at-home PT exercises before bed, but only a few of the starter ones. I was still pretty achey from PT on Wednesday morning.

Friday: 30 Day Shred, Level 1. I recently upped my handweights from 3lbs to 5lbs (shut up, I know they’re tiny), which I’d been hesitant to do, because I wasn’t sure my knees–and my right knee in particular–could take it (all those damn lunges and squats). But 3lbs was just way too light, so I finally gave the 5 pounders a try. My knees do not like it, and my right knee really doesn’t like it, but I’m modifying and sticking with it.

Saturday: Riding lesson in the morning. My back felt pretty good, which was encouraging. Normally I would also do some other kind of physical activity afterwards, like go for a hike or do a workout DVD, but because I was planning to take another riding lesson on Sunday morning (I don’t normally ride two days in a row), I didn’t want to push it.

Sunday: Another riding lesson in the morning, and this one lasted nearly an hour, which I did at a trot nearly the entire time. When I left the barn the sun was shining and it was a balmy 35F, so I decided to go for a hike. The day was so beautiful, I wish the hike had gone better. My upper back and neck really started hurting about 15 minutes in, so in the end I reluctantly turned back. It ended up being 40 minutes total, which isn’t too terrible on top of two riding lessons this weekend, but I wish I could have capitalized on the great weather more.

Tags: hiking, recipes: cupcakes
Posted in Eating, Healing, Riding, Sweating | 3 Comments »