strongrrr.

that's right, stronger spelled with a "grrr". i wanted to write what i'm about to yesterday, but i needed some time to sit with it, perhaps even sleep on it. so i did. and in the fresh light of today, i still want to say what i'm gonna say, so i'm gonna say it.

tomato soup on halloween

halloween is always kind of crazy at 1918 quincy street. i usually work a full day, then come home to rush the kids into their costumes so we can go trick o' treating before it gets too late/too dark/too cold. after asking strangers for candy while dressed in disguises (this really is quite strange, isn't it?), we come home and the kids are wired in anticipation of the sugar-coma. usually by now, i've realized it's 7pm and no one has had any semblance of a dinner.

i know what you're thinking...

actually, no. no, i don't know what you're thinking. but i have enough clarity of thought today that i figured i'd sit down and get it all out for you, my lovely readers.

21 day fix. day 16.

today was an awesome day. last night was a shitty night.

21 day fix. get on your feet.

to anyone who may have noticed (chirp, chirp), my last post was on tuesday of last week. that was day 9 of my second round of the 21 day fix, and today is day 15. so, it's been 6 days. where have i been and what the f*ck happened? get ready for all my bullsh*t excuses cuz i've got a whole list of them.

(quick poll: should i continue to use the * symbol in my curse words or just type them out for legit purposes? please vote.)

21 day fix. r2d9. it was a good day.

i needed to have a great day today, after not working out all weekend and eating whatever i felt like. and today was exactly the day i needed. you're gonna hear all about it.

with all the rampant gun violence, maybe it's too soon for this to be funny?

21 day fix. round 2 day 8.

you'll notice that i did not post on days 6 or 7, nor do i really want to talk about days 6 or 7. mmm'kay? mmm'kay.

you can fill in the blanks as you wish. on to today!

21 day fix. r2d5. give me back my black t-shirt.

why don't you just go ahead and let the above video play while you read the following.

"give me my money back you b*tch" is apparently the war cry of both the federal and minnesota government as they persist in demanding money from us. for anyone who cared to notice my signature last night (certified mail is never good news) we received a notice in the mail that a couple of certified letters were waiting for us at the post office. a couple of them! how lovely!

21 day fix. r2d4. whatever.

"whatever" is the only thing i have to say about this day. but rest assured, there's a lengthy blog post that follows, so i obviously have way more to say about this day.

21 day fix. r2d3. bagel thy name is Shame.

let's start today's recap by getting this out there in the hopes that the more i talk about it, the better i'll feel:

last week the badger said "who is this guy, and why do you like him so much?"
i don't really, it's just that he's everywhere. and i find that endlessly hilarious.

there may come a day when i can eat bagels, and today was not supposed to be that day. but i overslept, i was hungry, and i walked past a brand new bagel shop in the skyway with a sign that read "pumpkin bagels! pumpkin cream cheese!". the wafting smell of warm, doughy pumpkin and spice was just too much for me. so. you know...

21df. r2d2. that's right.

that's right. i just made a star wars reference. how incredible am i?! pretty incredible.

r2= round two. d2 = day two. here we go.

21 day fix round 2. i regret nothing.

i hope ya'll are ready for really sh*tty pictures of food and preexisting internet memes, because i'm bringing it back. i'm bringing it all back.

this is the life!

the title of this blog post is brought to you by my daughter nash, who has applied this phrase to both appropriate and not-so-appropriate moments. appropriate: at the grand ely lodge, looking out over a flat boundary waters lake while reclining in beach chairs: "this is the life!" not so appropriate: sitting on the toilet, going poop, waiting for me to wipe her: "this is the life!" not so sure that i agree with her in the latter situation, but you've gotta support her enthusiasm.

on to today!

to inifinity, and beyond!

so today could be considered by many to be day 23 of the 21 day fix, but it's not called the "to infinity and beyond" fix, it's called the 21 day fix. so i'm outside of their time frame and doing my own thing now, but still sticking with the fix eating plans and workouts. is that allowed?

21 day fix. finished... for now.

i have more to say than this, but if you are pressed for time, here's my 21 day fix for dummies soundbite: move more. eat real food. eat smaller portions and eat more often. these sounds like simple rules, because they are. and if you stick with the rules, it's gonna "work" for you, whatever your definition of "it's working" may be.

21 day fix. day 19. cheese.

you guys. i did it. for the first time this week i got up at 5:30 and got in my workout. i'd like to thank my entire family, including the dog, for sleeping through the night so i could sleep.

i like to do burpees in my living room.

21 day fix. day 18. snooze.

snooze. it's what i'd like to do for a whole, entire day. that's right. i want to black out my bedroom windows and just sleep for approximately 18 hours. i don't feel that this is too much to ask. in a similar vein, i'd like someone to take our asshole of a dog for those 18 hours, since he has decided to pace the room, pant and whine all night long for the past two nights. my children finally start sleeping through the night and now a four-legged-creature with fur and no thumbs is gonna keep me up? f*ck that.

21 day fix. day 17. the final countdown.

go ahead hit play and just let it rock in the background while you read the rest of the post.

21 day fix. day 16. the 90's weren't so bad.

day 16 into these new habits, and i can't help but think back to the 90's and how amazing they were. that's right, you heard me - the 90's were amazing. in 1990 i was 12 years old and just as my so called life was ramping up on tv, so was my love affair with manic panic hair dye and wearing argyle and mini skirts. i survived puberty, fell in love and had my heart broken more times than i care to share by too many italian boys. i sang super sad love songs alone in my room to no one but a cat and a hairbrush. i had braces for 4 years, left home for college and survived life in the mighty midwest. included in that first year of college was the dreaded "freshman fifteen", only for me it was the freshman twenty. yup. i put on twenty pounds in-between being dropped off by my weepy parents at getsch hall and leaving that freshman dorm in may of 1997. i'm not even quite sure how i did that. i should be pretty proud of myself.

21 day fix. day 15. ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

back in the swing of things, gang. our camping vacation is over, the minneapolis public schools have started, the neighborhood pools are drained... everything is boring again.

21 day fix. days 9 through... i stopped counting.

so my brief hiatus from blogging is now over, seeing as we have returned from the woods only slightly unscathed.

21 day fix. day 8. peanut butter yogurt.

today was an epic day. it has been a non-stop test of stamina since 9am this morning getting ready for our camping trip. half of the car is packed, all the laundry is done and the badger cleaned the house like it's going on the market. it's 8pm and we just collapsed on the couch. the children were intermittently helpful and superbly needy, so that made for an interesting day. but i fit in a work out and i stuck to my eating plan, save for the beer i'm currently having for "dinner."

21 day fix. day 7. a week in review.

i'm going to spare you from the crappy food pictures today and just talk about the week. so i hope you like words.

21 day fix. day 6. s-a-t-u-r-d-a-y NIGHT!

today got off to a good start. and i'd say compared to what my saturdays usually consist of (two too many bloody mary's and cheesy eggs, snacking and drinking beer throughout the afternoon), i totally nailed this whole healthy saturday thing.

21 day fix. day 5. watch out, i'm crabby.

i'm going to try and make this quick because i'm exhausted and crabby. i wonder if this is just what happens when you kind of 'detox' off of eating processed food and sugar. by day 5, you are both proud of yourself for doing it, but also just straight-up pissed off.

21 day fix. day 4. and then reality sunk in.

i almost named this blog "f*ck day four". but for my jesus-y readers, i figured i'd save the profanity for the first sentence.

21 day fix. day 3. the real world is coming.

it's 9:30pm right now, which is approximately one hour past my bedtime at old-person-o'clock. these 5:30am workouts are making me a dullard. alas. on to today's recap!

21 day fix. day 2. progress, not perfection.

i made it to day 2. i know this sounds like nothing. but i actually committed to something and have managed to do it for more than just one day. this is so unlike me. ask anyone who knows me. i typically go full tilt boogie into any great idea that i think is achievable. i nail it for the first few hours, maybe even the first day. but by the next day, i'm like "meh. over it." but no more, i say - no more!

21 day fix. day 1.

i was coerced into doing this thing called 21-day-fix. okay, i wasn't really coerced. i had noticed that a facebook friend of mine kept looking more and more amazing, and she was posting all kinds of sweaty pictures of her workouts, and her posts were more and more positive. i asked her what she was doing and it turns out she did the fix and then became a coach for the program. so i asked to be a part of one of her challenge groups so i could try it out. that's my definition of "coerced".

it starts with: teeth. you don't think about them until they totally ruin your life.

in other news, how’s my tooth? it f*cking hurts. my new dentist finished up my first ever root canal yesterday, and i’m going to tell you all about it.

rainy day fudgy brownies

the brownie recipe i'm about to share with you has been in my family since i was a little kid. my well-worn recipe card has the title "honeybear brownies" scribbled across the top. true to their name, i remember my mom always having one of those plastic, magical bears of gooey, sticky goodness on hand. whenever it was time to make these brownies, that glorious bear would descend from the cupboard and mom would squeeze the honey out of him and into the mixing bowl. how romantic and oddly grotesque.

a dirty martini and some cinnamon biscuits

i don't know about you, but pretty much the definition of a happy saturday morning for me is being allowed to sleep past 8am, followed quickly by a cup of dark, oily, strong black coffee and some sort of breaded vehicle for delivering cinnamon, sugar and butter into my mouth.

sorel boots. kale soup.

i got a pair of sorel boots in the mail today. i feel like this has thrust me into an entirely different category of 'minnesotan'.

breakfast cuppin' cakes

it’s january. time for resolutions and sh*t. i don’t have any resolutions but i do have goals. one of them is to get through one solid year, one solid stretch of three-hundred-and-sixty-five days without another running injury. i plan to meet this goal by being stronger than i’ve ever been. i’m going to do so many single leg squats and planks that my eyes are going to go crisscross and i’ll be running 8 miles like i’m making a sandwich.

i also think 2014 is the year when i’m going to learn to eat. good gracious, is this hard…