A Case of the Runs

It is extremely rare that I get to eat fresh noodles. Once about two years ago, "The Ukrainian" and I tried making our own whole-wheat pasta.  While it didn't turn out bad, there is a reason we haven't tried again. The dried ones are just... better... and EASIER. The only other times I can recall fresh noodles is the ramen place my sisters took me for my 21st birthday (might do a review at some point) and this one. This place used to be called Bamboodles but recently had a management change and is now called Yu Pin. The ambience was open, clean, and nice.  Not too crowded on a Sunday night! I was attracted by the idea of fresh Spinach noodles, so I got this cold version that you're supposed to dip in a thin soy sauce.  I didn't get it hot in a broth because I wasn't sure where the broth came from, and the server seemed to have little concept of "no meat." "The Ukrainian" ordered plain noodles in broth with a fried ch...

Before I spend the rest of this (long) entry talking about my experience in Fargo, I thought I'd show you some race pics!  I will update my Fargo Marathon and 5K pages with these -- and more! -- pics when I get the chance.  I've been lagging, even though school is officially DONE, as my filed my dissertation earlier this week.  Work has suddenly and quickly filled any remaining voids.  Can't I catch a break? Here is "distrustful" me...  Yep, I rock capris and CEP sleeves simultaneously. :$  And that green shirt was a birthday gift ! My finish line shot.  Actually, this also appeared on a jumbo-tron!  I LOVE this race! Our 5k hand-holding endeavor .  That guy up front seems disgusted by us... oh well. ;) Thankfully, we traveled the (under construction) LAX, Salt Lake City, Fargo/Hector, and Minneapolis/St Paul airports with my Water Bobble .  We filled from water fountains and saved $$$ on bottled water! On to Fargo... ...

If you are a Blogger user and haven't been seeing my usual comments on your blog, it's because the platform is giving me a SEVERELY hard time adding comments to embedded comments sections. On a related note, I was wondering why my comments these days have been lacking, and it's partly due to this glitch.  Fortunately, I found a workaround, so the commenting should now work.  Please let me know that you're still reading out there! I'll end with this last tidbit, which does NOT apply to you commenting on my blog:   If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.   Thou shall not make thy blog host angry.

I did some more Happy Herbivore cooking. Now, before you assume that "vegan" means "boring," check out these outcomes! If you remember, I recently had a tortilla soup that was rather regrettable.  To make things right, I made this version below: Braggs liquid aminos is what I use as a substitute for soy sauce, as it is much milder in terms of saltiness.  Excuse my jar of garlic... I was a bit lazy to chop actual cloves, as you can see. A can of fire-roasted tomatoes was the base of this dish, along with a can of jalapenos. It came together really nicely!  If you look closely, tortillas are actually part of the soup... they help thicken it. To go with the soup, I made bread.  And not just any bread... vegan whole wheat BEER bread . Now, I don't know much about beer, so I used what was lying around. This part when I dumped the beer in was very cathartic. Once in the oven, I could smell the faint smell of beer waft around the kitchen.  It wa...

Although we're not quite sure *exactly* how old little Bruno is, I think it's pretty safe to say that he has reached about 7 months. This little guy is EXTREMELY energetic.  I remember when my dad first got him, all he did was chew a little and then look for a lap to sleep on, but soon, that evolved into running, jumping, tackling, and fetching.  I am VERY glad that he hasn't turned out to be as large as we had feared.  Seeing his kind of large paws when he came home at about 7-8 weeks old made us fear the worst.  But as you can see in this picture below (at 6 months), he isn't really too big at all.  Probably ~17 lbs at this point. If he had been large (over 25 lb), I would have taken him running.  I see lots of people run around the park where I do my long runs with their dogs.  My leash time with Bruno is limited.  He has a harness so I don't pull on his neck (and doubles as a seatbelt mechanism for the car), but he is less interested in...

In an attempt to eat more protein, I started microwaving egg whites (like the one pictured) at lunch in a mug and mixing in things like salsa, mustard, salt, pepper, and avocado.  This was delicious, filling, and nutritious... not to mention pretty cheap.  "The Ukrainian" and I are going to try to eat more protein post-marathon , so since I still eat eggs without much abandon, egg whites seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, the other day, after enjoying such a lunch, my co-workers around me started saying something about a rotten egg or sewer smell.  They didn't know it was from me, and I had gone to wash the mug out already, leaving no evidence.  However, they made a huge deal out of it and told the front desk guard to come check it out.  He came over and asked me if I smelled something bad, to which I said no.  NOTE: Usually, when people don't smell something obviously bad, they must be the cause.  Fortunately, some people remarked about the...

In case it doesn't update in your Google readers, here is a link to my Fargo 5K + Marathon recap  (which will hopefully be done by the time this post goes live). ~~~~~~ Funny signs that I saw this past Saturday while running: "Finish B4 Rapture" "The End is Near" - held by a grim reaper at Mile 25.5 "You are NOT almost there" - held by a woman at Mile 5, and then that same woman again at Mile 26, with the "NOT" crossed off "Worst Rapture Day Parade Ever!"

EVENT: Fargo Marathon ("Go Far" Challenge) DATE: Saturday May 21, 2011 LOCATION: Fargo, ND / Moorhead, MN RACE BEGAN: 7:30 AM FINISH TIME: 04:48:49 This is a long one, but here we go! When offered a "challenge" in which you run a 5K Friday night and a marathon Saturday morning, I am one of those weirdos who takes it on. If you need proof, see my San Diego Marathon weekend  last year as an example.  With three medals possible, a flat course, two tech shirts, good food, and free lodging (courtesy of "The Ukrainian"'s relatives)? I totally bit! The whole Fargo experience is very low-key.  I am going to write a separate post about my impression of Fargo, North Dakota.  But let it be known that they have really good bread, with samples!  ( Breadsmiths ) "Marathon multigrain" (fifth from the top), LOL. :) Here are the (epic) marathon shirts.  We didn't wear these to the race, but they were fun to model!  Yes, they actually had ...