yet another injured runner.

let's start tonight's post with a question: what are the top three most unfortunate things a doctor could say to you upon looking at an x-ray of one of your body parts?

for me, the top three are "uh-oh..."; "i don't know how to break this to you..."; and, "wow...".

tummy from hell

in my blog stalking reading, i have been looking and looking for a fellow twin mama who is a runner and has gotten back into shape, without surgery, after having twins. maybe i haven’t looked hard enough, but i haven’t found a soul. i know that comparing myself to others isn’t wise for my “self esteem project: day f’cking 1”, but sometimes it’s absolutely necessary to feel a sense of camaraderie, even if it’s with someone you will never meet.

allow me to introduce the badger

one year ago today, i met The Badger for the first time at the aster cafe. i was more than just a little nervous. i had changed outfits approximately six times before heading out the door ten minutes late. i texted him that i was running a little behind, and i'm sure he wondered more than a few times if i was actually going to show up. i do believe that i blamed my tardiness on the two four-month-olds that i left at home for the night. but really, it was all the wardrobe malfunctions.

ambitious yard work

last night was much like any other night.

after our typical routine of playing with, feeding, and putting the twins to bed, the badger and i began to tackle our somewhat lengthy list of home improvement tasks.

most of the items on that list are centered around the exterior of our home.  in the three months since we have lived here, the ground has pretty much been covered in snow, which has allowed us to envision a yard much like eden itself  - overflowing with lush grasses, filled with fragrant blooms and speckled with trees as grand as the lord of hosts Herself. however, as the snow has now finally melted,  we have discovered the somewhat overwhelming clean-up project that lay before us, thus deducing that, quite frankly, the previous owners of our home simply did not give a sh*t. in fact, i think they took it upon themselves as a personal mission to make the yard as ghetto as possible.

chocolate chip cookies and my first 5k

i ran a 5k today. that's right. a 5k (more specifically, the get in gear). that's 3.1 miles. i finished in 29: 27 14. that's a big deal for me. i would like to thank the color pink and my sporty knee-high socks for my triumphant 5k. next up will be a half-marathon at the end of august, with a few more 5k's and 10k's thrown in for good measure between now and then.

pancakes that won't make you cry

i'm not sure what it is, but pancakes have always somewhat alluded me. they are so delicious, yet so devastatingly difficult to get right (an award goes out to the person who counts the number of d’s i use in this blog post. what is my deal today?! there’s another one!). the first time i made pancakes, much like the first time i made pie dough, i wound up in tears. they burned to a crisp and resembled mini-frisbees. then when i turned down the heat, they wouldn’t cook and slipped all over the skillet into bizarre shapes that didn't even come close to resembling pancakes.

but pancakes? you allude me no more.

soup, soup, i love soup!

i have only recently discovered how to make soup. yes, i am being serious. dead. serious. about. soup.

i used to scour the internet for soup, stew, even "stoup" recipes... i studied and studied, because i didn't want bland soup, overly-salted soup, soup with mushy, depressed vegetables, etc. my list of soup pet-peeves is really quite long (and strange).

just give me goat cheese

if i have failed to yet mention my love of goat cheese, then i have lead you astray.

i love goat cheese and try to incorporate it into almost every edible thing that i can. i have added it to scones, muffins, brownies , salads, sauces, ragu's, bruschetta toppings... oh, the list goes on and on.
but what i want to share with you tonight is a very simple opening act (aka appetizer) that i came up with on a very special occasion.

my pie dough and a confession

i made my very first pie crust in the fall of 2007. 2007 was when i realized that my favorite thing to do in life, other than playing the piano and being extraordinarily ridiculous in public, was to create ex-nihilo in my kitchen. it was thanksgiving, and my mother had come into town to keep me company. i had never made a pie in my life, but had over-romanticized the idea to the point of infatuated nausea.