Riot and Frolic

Weekend at WSDC 2012

Let's take a peek at my weekend attending the Wisconsin State Dancesport Championships.  It's not DWTS, but it is a lot of hairspray and rhinestones.  And coffee.  Lots of coffee.  

Yet no photos of me in costume.  I always forget.  And feel stupid asking people to take them.  Sorry!

Sexiest picture ever on this blog:

 

pre-drive run= sweating off tanner

 

Awesome hotel room provided by friend, America.  2 story windows, free full breakfast, free WI-FI, full kitchen:

ridiculous hotel room, ridiculous baby

MKE's Residence Inn art and architecture

 

Slowest long run EVER! on Friday.  Milwaukee is very perty.  Had to stop to take pictures:

ginormous windcatcher in Veterans Park

 

the Riverwalk, about 3.5 miles from our hotel

 

Mini-vaca with only one child= lots of naps:

relaxing on our day off

 

WSDC packs everyone in to this beautiful ballroom:

the fab Pfister Hotel ballroom

 

These aren't mine:

frocks

 

This will blind you at any time of day:

more rhinestones than you can shake a stick at

 

Getting ready takes about 2 hours.  I don't have pics of the final product, but here's some of the process:

preppin'

 

more preppin'

 

Morning after the competition.  Hit up a local landmark for some food:

breakfast at the MKE Public Market

 

duh

 

Dancing went great.  

On Thursday, we got 5th place in the Rising Star (the lesser of the 2 Pro divisions) Smooth out of 24 couples.  Weeee!  We just missed the final for Rising Star Rhythm, but expected as much.  

Saturday, we made the semi-final (beating 12 couples) in Open (the more competitive Pro division) Rhythm, which was awesome.  Then, we didn't even make the semi for Open Smooth.  "Flabbergasted" I think is my word for that one.  It felt great, though.  [I'm choosing to believe that was a fluke and not our result in Rising Star.  There are good reasons for me to believe that, besides leaving my ego intact.]

Have a great week, people!

 

Love you!

 

As Usual...

I'm sitting in an amazing hotel room (free brekkie! 2 story windows! full kitchen! free WI-FI!) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, recovering from a big night of dancing at the Wisconsin State Dancesport Championships (25 year anniversary!).  Dancing went great (made finals from a quarterfinal! didn't fall down!).  

The G and I have only one little lady with us (the wee Zoo), so it's a bit of a vacation for us.  

I'm going to go for a run around the lake (not literally, duh), then we're going to hit up the competition hotel for some schmoozing and fun.  I'll take pictures of the amazing dresses and goodies and everything today and give you the lowdown tomorrow.  

How hard it is to type with fake nails?

Just Do It

Some of you laugh when you read my posts about running (I think this one did it for a couple people).  That started me thinking about how I started running.  And more so, on how I kept running.  

Here's some interesting things to think about if you're starting, or have started (and you're kind of hating) running:

• figure out discomfort vs. pain.  Running is hard.  But is it discomfort or pain?  "Pain is getting burned by a stove."  (quote from Runner's World article, by Jennifer Burningham)   You can handle a little discomfort, right?
  

  Scraping up my knee? Pain. 4 miles? Uncomfortable.
• organized runs are fun.  New running gear is fun.  Being part of the running club (all of the people who run) is fun. 
  

  Finishing is fun
• if you're running outside, you're running outside.  You're getting fresh air, some vitamin D, smelling the roses or lilacs or apple blossoms, and that is good for your soul.
  

  Even the freeway looks pretty
• your head tries to give out before your legs/lungs/heart.  You're pushing the limits of what you thought you could do, and your brain does not like the change.  But humans can run farther than most animals because of how we're built (you should really read this or this).  Once you're going for a few seconds/blocks/miles more than you have before, it's a mental game way more than a physical game.  If your legs aren't giving up, why is your head?
• you can eat more.  Or lose weight.  Whatever.  Running is a great calorie-burner at about 100 calories per mile for a 150 pound person (you burn more calories if you weigh more, btw).  Even if you walk an hour (hey, maybe you'll break into a jog for a block or two), you just burned off your mostly-healthy lunch!  Score.  
• after running for a couple miles, your brain shuts off.  It's lovely.  Someone asked me what I think about when I run.  Answer: nothing.  Blissful, awesome nothing.  I look at people and my surroundings (there are some amazing houses around) and listen to my footfall and breathing and don't think.  
• decompress after a long day at work.  Start your morning off with an accomplishment.  Get some time alone.  Shake off your road rage.  Whatever your excuse, it's a good reason to run.
• you feel powerful.  I NEVER thought I'd be able to go over 3 miles a year ago, let alone go 12 miles and run the whole time.  How awesome is it to conquer your own long-held belief?  Effing awesome.

Go forth and conquer.

Thor said so

 

10 Kitchen Tips For The Cooking Impaired (Part 1)

I am not a great cook.  

I burn bread, overcook fish/chicken/leftovers, don't like to measure ingredients, often don't read the entire recipe and wing the last 25%, make dishes that taste like... nothing, undercook pasta/rice/any other grain you can cook, and only make things I would like to eat (aka, it's sweet or spicy and often nothing in between).

But I cook nonetheless.  A lot.  Many days, I make breakfast, clean it up, make lunch, clean it up, make dinner, and finally... clean it up.  

So taken with a grain of salt, here's 6 (yes, a completely random 6; the other 4 will be continued next week) of my 10 Kitchen Tips for the Cooking Impaired:

1. Use a larger cutting board.  The bigger the better.  Because this sucks.  And yet I do it all the time.  
2. Use a larger pan.  When you're cooking meat, especially.   Something about the heat circulating around the ingredients and not stewing in its own juices.  This article puts it all nicely.  How many times have I tried to smash 4 chicken breasts into my little saute pan and wondered why it took forever?  A lot of times.  Here is a better layout.
3. No-knead bread is my lifesaver.  Need a sandwich?  Need some french toast?  Need some pizza?  Need some kind of food in a hurry?  This dumb bread, which takes no skill and about 3 minutes to start, is the best go-to ingredient I've found.
4. Parchment paper.  Use it.  Love it.  Put in under anything you're going to bake: the bread mentioned above, cookies, pizza, cakes... and never wash your pans again.  Okay.  Maybe you'll have to wash them, but at least they won't look like this.
5. Sharpen your knives.  It is a pain in the ass to cut with unsharp knives and most of the time, you won't realize why your chopping/mincing/dicing is so lame.  This video will show you how to sharpen your own; hopefully you'll give them a tune-up after each use.
6. If you cook meat (which we do, a lot), you might have a little can or jar on your stove to pour the grease into.  When you have this nasty grease can full of your bacon and hamburger fat, don't take it out to the garbage with your hands and arms full of your purse, workout clothes, dance shoes, and Goodwill donations while carrying your beloved Nokia 3320 cell phone in your mouth because you will drop that awesome stripey-cased phone into the jar o' goo and the T-Mobile guy will laugh at you when you bring it in to be fixed because cell phones can't handle that much bacon.  Put it in a plastic bag, okay?

safety first

List of Last Week's Labors of Love

- I'm the victim of a perp!  Someone stole my camera (yeah, that new one ) and my gin.  What?!...  And LB's delicious whiskey, which she ironically had here for safe keeping.  I'm fine (don't feel scared or violated or anything needing therapy).  But I could use a good punching bag.  I'm quite pissed.  I'm trying to get over it by typing this here post.

- Mae Cake's 2nd birthday was a blast-y.  

V and MC split a cupcake with candles in it every day for a week.  We'd sing Happy Birthday, then the destruction would begin.

Let's re-enact the crime...

- we also had a swingin' party for her on Saturday.  I'd post pictures of it, but somebody stole my camera.  

- The G and I bought her this awesome tent, which about ten times bigger than I thought it would be.  If she didn't like it, I was claiming it for myself.

(Buy your own here, Kids Enchanted Tree Play Tent.  There's only one left.)

- there's curtains in the window and other door for this tent, which brought around the interesting fact that V can tie a knot.  

She was opening the tent curtains one morning and said, "Momma, I know how to tie a knot."  

And I, being the great mother I am, said, "You don't know how to tie a knot."

And V said, "Yes, I do.  You just take this one go around this other one and stick it through here and then pull it."  

And it's true.  That's how you tie a knot.  

- a pink cake, by request of the lady of honor.

- V gave me a present.  I really couldn't ask for much more.

Rock on, tiny dancer

Victim of lust and victim of vampirism