Don't Put Sugar in Your Gas Tank

Beware, this could possible be the longest post ever- and coming from me, that's a lot.

Seriously, it's really hard to run when you've been indulging in birthday treats and other processed bread products all week. Here's the re-cap:

Friday: pizza for dinner
Saturday: doughnut and chocolate milk with the hot tub movers, leftover pizza for lunch
Sunday: family birthday party with lasagna, breadsticks, apple pie and ice cream
Monday: Brazilian steak house with mashed potatoes, appetizers, lemonade and flan
Tuesday: crock-pot potluck, maple bar and egg nog
Wednesday: leftover apple pie, plus ice cream
Thursday: pizza, cheese breadstick, garlic breadstick, "cinnamon roll" breadsticks (frosting and cinnamon)- one at lunch, and another small one before heading out the door

See what I mean? I've fallen off the wagon hard core. It's time to nip this birthday celebration in the bud. Hence, today's run was not the most fun. But I managed, and after the first couple miles, things actually went pretty well. Although I might have pushed a bit too hard, because my breathing was pretty labored. But I did really great on the hills- I was impressed with myself. It was even getting pretty dark at the end, but I made it about 4.2 miles in 41:50. I finally updated my November goal. I was just so excited that for the first time, in October I met my monthly running goal. Granted, it was only 15 miles, but it was nice to see the Congratulations on there. This month I'm also shooting pretty low at 25 miles, but I'm already way ahead of the curve, so that feels good. I do have a 5k coming up on Thanksgiving Day, and I'm pretty excited about it. It should be a lot of fun- plus, it's a healthy way to start a day of binging (and maybe I won't be as likely to binge after running, ya know?)

Okay, so back to the long-overdue updates. Um, I never posted snow pictures from last week. Luckily it only snowed the one day, Wednesday, but it was a doozy. Here are some pics.

This is before work. Not too bad, but the plows were out.

This is how much snow I brushed off my car- a couple inches.

This was my car after work, after it had snowed all day (and you can see my spooky crooked pinky). This is how much snow I had to brush off my car (after work)- ugh! That's a good 6-7 inches, at least!!

Luckily Thursday, the day of the football game, was clear, but it was pretty cold. However, with all of the aforementioned layers, I was well-prepared. In fact, for the whole first quarter, I wasn't even wearing my coat, gloves or hat (mostly because when we first got there, I used the restroom, and they had the heat blasting in there, so I was plenty warm). As the game went on, I added items until I was fully bundled- but still nice and warm (except my nose).

As far as the game went, I was very nervous, because in the first quarter, TCU scored 10 points and we were 0. Yikes! Then we scored a field goal, then another field goal. So for most of the game the score was 10-6. Neither team scored in the third quarter, and it came down to the wire again (just like the Oregon State game). The whole game I was a ball of nerves, but especially for the last 3 minutes. We got the ball back with 2:48 left on the clock. TCU had the #1 defense in the country, so they had pretty much shut us down the whole game. Luckily, after the 1st quarter blitz, we were able to keep them in check, too. But somehow, in the last few minutes of the game, my team moved the ball 80 yards down the field, and scored a touchdown!!! So the score was 13-10. Then TCU go the ball back with around a minute to go. Still plenty of time for them to score and at least tie the game. But miracle of miracles happened, and as they attempted to come back, we intercepted which pretty much sealed the deal.

It was incredible!! The fans were immediately on the field, and they had the goal posts down before I could even get a picture. And it was extra crazy with most everyone in all black. It was quite the sight. I was seriously in shock for at least 24 hours afterward. I was pretty much resigned to losing the game (some fan, huh?). I guess I just didn't want to be disappointed, but we're 10-0. That means as long as BYU doesn't beat us on the 22nd, we'll win the conference championship. And, if (when) we beat San Diego State this week, and when (if) we beat BYU, we'll be undefeated, and go to a BCS bowl again. How awesome would that be? Oh, how I would love to go back to the Fiesta Bowl. It would be a great vacation. But we'll see how things go.

Here are the pictures from the game.

Me and the Hubs (of course pulling a funny face). You can see the dressed mostly in black crowd (and my dimple, too- sweet!). A little bit of a close-up (and again my dimple is quite prominent- I love it!). The Hubs is of course pulling a face- that's not really how he smiles, LOL.
Here's the close-up of my cat hat (isn't it great? it's got ears and the eyes- it's one of my favorite possessions and was a gift from the Hubs) and another face from the Hubs.
Here is everyone rushing the field. As you can see, the goal posts are down. So much craziness!

Friday after work the Hubs and I were cleaning out the workshop (which is attached to the garage, behind it) in preparation for the new freezer. That's why I picked up a take n' bake pizza for dinner, because it was just easier. It was hard, but luckily the Hubs did most of the work, before I got home.

Saturday morning was the big day. The Hubs was up at 8:00 a.m. (unheard of for him) so that he could begin the hot tub moving process. Meanwhile I was cleaning like a mad woman because I thought I was going to have people in my house afterward eating doughnuts and chocolate milk. However, it ended up that everyone just ended up eating outside. Grrr- all that time I could have been running. Just kidding. The cleaning had to be done anyway, and I just went running after everyone left. But here are the hot tub and freezer pics. Remember, we still don't have the electrical work done for the hot tub, so no blogger party just yet. But I'll let you know.

Side view (duh).

Vanna White, er the Hubs, modeling (and looking very dazed and confused- seriously, never a straight face for pictures, ever!).

Inside view- check out those fine jets!

And here is the new (old) freezer that was a gift from the Hubs parents (we have to pay them for the hot tub). Isn't it huge? I am so excited!! Now I can stock up on stuff when it's on sale. Or make dinners ahead of time and have room to freeze them, and even hide dead bodies. You know, all the cool stuff you can do when you have enough freezer space. By the way, just kidding about that last one.

Wow, I told you this would be long. And I haven't even added the pictures from the family birthday party on Sunday. I guess I'll get to that now so that I can wrap this up, and watch some football with the Hubs. Oh, except I forgot to tell you that my run on Saturday was pretty good- well, minus the knee pain. It was about 50 degrees and sunny, so I headed out in capris and a singlet (I knew I would get warm, and I was so right). I also planned to try and go longer than my usual 4 miles, so I put on my hydration pack. It was a great run, and I warmed up fast. I was sweating, even though the cars driving by probably thought I looked really cold (hello, who wears capris and tank tops in 50 degrees?). I had 2 times when my knee was really bothering me, but I was able to get through it with some walking and just pushing through. Both times it happened after I had to stop at a traffic light, then started going again. As long as I kept going I was good. I ended up making it 5.2 miles in 54:44. Certainly not my fastest run, but it was my longest run in quite a while (probably since my 10k), so I was very happy about it. Plus it was nice to be out enjoying the sunshine (even if it was pretty chilly).

Okay, now to the birthday hoopla. Since my mom's birthday is 2 days before mine, we celebrate together (my youngest brother, and my brother-in-law's birthdays are this week, but we'll be celebrating those next Sunday). Strangely enough, another brother-in-law (the Hubs brother) has the same birthday as my mom. But we won't be celebrating with his family until the day after Thanksgiving (which also happens to be the Hubs youngest sister's birthday). Yes, November is crazy at chez RooBabs. It's just one long party.

We decided on lasagna for dinner, and my mom made my favorite brown-bag apple pie (which is very similar to dutch apple pie), and I made her a macaroon pizza since she loves chocolate and coconut (it's basically a brownie crust with a coconut and condensed milk mixture on top, with sliced almonds- it's a Pampered Chef recipe). I had picked out my birthday presents, but she surprised me with some Bath & Body Works soap (sweet pumpkin cinnamon). We gave her the new Neil Diamond CD and some slippers with traction on the bottom (since last year there were several incidences of slipping and getting hurt).

Here are the photos proving the shenanigans.

This is me with my "Birthday Girl" crown. My niece gave it to me to wear.

This is me singing into my soap. Okay, that's not really what I was doing, but that's what it looks like.

Here I am with my running rain jacket, my brown puffy vest, and my cold weather outdoor top. I'm all set now.

Me blowing out the candles on my pie. Funny thing, when my mom put the candles in the hot pie, they melted on the bottom, so there was wax all over in the pie. Oops!

Here is my mom thinking she is so funny with her candles (she's not really 42, they were just leftover from my brother's 24th birthday back in March). That is the famous macaroon pizza.

Well peeps, I finally feel like I've caught you up on all the craziness that has happened in the past week. I still have much blog reading to do (especially you, MizFit, my talented, rhyming, information-laden pal... oh, how I've missed your comment-versations). One other step that I need to do is to update my workouts in the sidebar, but that's no big deal, because who really looks at that anyway? Okay, that's finally all for now. Hopefully Blogger will post the giant tome of a, well, post.