A Case of the Runs

Happy New Year! Since this year is bound to be full of changes and excitement for my family, I found it especially important to visit a temple today.  This is normally something I do with my parents, but the timing didn't work out.  Luckily, I was able to tweak my transit commute a bit to take care of this in time to get to work. The other day, I was thinking how grateful I was to be living in a country that has allowed my parents to be removed from unfavorable circumstances and my siblings and me to become contributors to society and live in general comforts -- all the while being able to partake in (some version of) our traditions.  I am also glad to live in an area where I am able to buy (mostly) traditional things and visit (somewhat) traditional places, as well as hear people speak my (other?) native language.  On top of all that, I get to drink Chamangos in El Monte (and Chula Vista !), attend Bat Mitzvahs, and make pseudo-Japanese food in my kitchen to remind myself o

The cookware in our kitchen had been kind of embarrassing.  Over the years, I've been doing a lot of cooking in "The Ukrainian"'s old basic pots (see this post if you really want to know) and some hand-me-downs from a friend who moved on to better things (example in this post). Since we already had all this stuff, we didn't register for new cookware when got married.  I mean, why ask for what you already have, right?  Until I realized that I was practically wearing a hole into some of the pot bottoms, and everything would stick and cook unevenly. I had toyed around with the idea of a dutch oven for years.  My foodie friend had bought a small one at Crate & Barrel for less than $100 with what he calls good results.  At the time, I figured there was no reason to cook with something that heavy and that expensive. Then, I won a Le Creuset baking dish on a blog .  I didn't use said dish for close to a year (because I still had my trusty cheap ones!), but

This video has taken me forever to review! As you know, I have done a lot of Jillian Michaels videos ( 6 Week 6 Pack , 30 Day Shred , No More Trouble Zones , Ripped in 30, Yoga Meltdown) because I don't belong to a gym and work out at home.  Besides her being so well-known, her videos are inexpensive on Amazon and widely available in stores, so I keep seeing them and wanting them. What I mostly like about this one is that it requires no equipment.  I mean, you are definitely better off with a mat, but no weights, bands, kettlebells, or anything else is required.  Nobody is using them, either, so it's not like "oh, you don't need this, but you kind of should have this." The workout claims to be 40-minutes, which I will tell you right now is NOT true.  With a tight morning schedule like mine, this really matters.  In fact, I rarely have time to do this workout on weekdays due to it being more like 55 minutes (warm-up + cool-down), and I often skip either wa

I'm not going to write about runners' stretches, though I should be doing a lot more of that post-race.  [By the way, did you see my official photos ?] Moving around as part of my daily public transit commute has been helpful, yet painful all at once. I'm pretty sure, though, that the only reason I haven't ballooned since my workout time has been cut in half is due to the extra walking I do to get to/from work (and during a part of my lunch break most days). Daily stretching was mandatory at one of my previous jobs, but some went beyond that.  I guess I was still young and limber (HAH!) and didn't see a need for anything more.  For the past several weeks, I have been doing hourly -- well, almost hourly due to skipping some going on lunch break, stretches at my desk.  While I had been trying to get up often at work, it IS still a lot of sitting, typing, and unnatural positions.  I had lower back pain earlier in the year last year, though that went away after I

EVENT : Carlsbad Marathon DATE : Sunday, January 19, 2014 LOCATION : Carlsbad, CA RACE BEGAN : 6:15 am FINISH TIME : 04:38:52 This is probably going to be a lot longer than it should, but as I mentioned  not too long ago, I was intending this to be my last marathon for a while, so I really wanted to be as mentally present as I could. In the days before the race, I gradually made most of my meals very carb-y, rather than eating a ton of food like I might have tried in the past.  I mean, I was eating plenty, but I was trying to be smart.  After running marathons for 7 years, I know better than to stress out my already-off GI tract by introducing a whole bunch of new stuff. Friday -- rice balls (onigiri) and spicy miso ramen: On Saturday, we arrived at the expo around noon, and getting in and out was easy.  I was actually able to sample everything without terrible disorderly crowds, which is one thing I have always appreciated about the Carlsbad races. The race loot

It was wayyyy back in June when I decided to sign up for the Carlsbad Marathon .  This seems like a lifetime ago.  I was coming off of my somewhat okay (considering the lack of training) performance at the Mountains 2 Beach Marathon and figured I could pull one last one out before retiring from marathoning for a while. Since then, I moved, and although training around my new hilly neighborhood was tough, I think "The Ukrainian" and I did okay.  We started vamping up in September, running 10 miles, 12, 15, stepped down a bit, and then took a break when we went on vacation .  Before we knew it, it was December, so we managed to fit a 16 (+ .4)-miler and what was supposed to be a 20-miler that became more like an 18-miler because we both had colds. Then, it was back to our usual 3-4 mile morning jaunts, followed by "The Ukrainian" getting what I assumed was the flu. I made egg drop soup to celebrate, erm, rectify, the situation. Thankfully, I had gotten a f

Happy New Year! It's time to grasp the new year by the horns, and not by the neck in an attempt to make a cat beard with a heavy cat who doesn't like to be lifted. I came out of last year kind of weary.  Although I worked through the holidays for the first time in a couple of years, I'm feeling a bit energized.  So, while everyone is being good and I'm eating candy the day before a dental appointment (no cavities!), I am trying to feed off of everyone's good intentions and being productive while it lasts.  First up, bread. I mentioned making bread in another post .  It was a baking goal of mine last year, and I have made a few different kinds, repeatedly.  However, after moving in August, I had not been able to make a single successful batch.  Specifically, none of my dough ever seemed to rise properly, and I thought it was a curse of the new house.  However, in my first real baking attempt of 2014, I had the best results ever, cutting off a slice straight