Recently Mike and I headed back to the midwest to visit family. We are getting too old to take red-eye flights (although Mike has been claiming he’s “too old” for this since 2005), so we always pretty much plan on one day of travel each way. It was great to see everyone in both Mike’s and my families and get to spend some quality time with them. But it was definitely tiring. When we got back on Tuesday, we were ready for a weekend, but a weekend was still several days away.
Interestingly one of the things I missed during the time in the midwest was cooking. How random! It is really strange that something that started purely as an “I want to eat healthy and know where the food I’m eating comes from so I guess I’m willing to cook” attitude has morphed into a “When is the next load of CSA produce coming because I want to cook immediately. Very strange.
Anyway, I got parsnips from this week’s CSA produce which is always a red flag to make some kind of stew, because Mike loves parsnips in stews and most of the time when he asks for them they aren’t seasonable so I use rutabagas instead and hope he will be fooled (he’s usually not… parsnips have a distinct taste). Most of the veggies this week were very fall-oriented root vegetables, so I did a lot of roasting. I roasted up beets and leeks (a great combination by the way! Add fennel as well if you have it!). I also roasted up garlic cabbage, two different varieties of squash, and some cumin-spiced cauliflower. And of course I made a pot of beef stew with the parsnips and other veggies.
Here’s one interesting thing. As I took bag after bag of the produce out of the fridge to wash and cut and prep, I kept waiting for these yellow carrots to show up. I clearly remember getting them in the CSA box because I thought it was weird that they had included half the carrot greens for the carrots (i.e. they hadn’t trimmed the greens all the way off, but they had trimmed all of the leafy good part off and just left the long, hard stalks). So I specifically remember noticing those carrots. And I went through all the bags of produce and they weren’t there. I repeat: they weren’t there. I literally have no idea where they went, but I have the uncomfortable feeling that I may have done something stupid with them. Like throw them away, or put them under the sink with the onions, or… you get the idea. If they show up, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I guess that was for the best because I wasn’t sure how I was going to use them anyway. Mike prefers orange carrots and gets suspicious with me when I use carrots of other colors. The splash of orange color is pretty nice in soups/stews in comparison to the pale yellow of the other carrots. Also, I bet the orange carrots must have more beta carotene, but you couldn’t prove that by me.
The one thing that I somehow forgot in the hotel room in Michigan was my tube of mascara. Not a big deal, especially since there was a new mascara brand that my hairdresser wanted me to try anyway. I went and got some my first day back in Seattle. I got it in Midnight (the same color name as my previous mascara). All good, right? Right?? Well, the next day I put on the new mascara in front of my bathroom mirror and then went to work. Still all good. Then I went to the restroom and under the track lighting in front of the sink I saw that my mascara was a glittery blue. Well, well. Fortunately the glittery blue only seems to show up under very specific lighting which doesn’t include the normal lights at work or at home. But definitely does include the track lighting in the restroom at work. Mike told me that it was likely due to fluorescent lighting. I was planning to go to boxing that night and wondered whether or not my mascara was going to look blue in the gym. I figured Mike would know. He was out of town for work, so I texted him.
“You think the lights at the gym are fluorescent?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Darn. Ok. Then I have to stop by the store before boxing to get new mascara or it will look glittery blue.”
“No, I think it’s halogen track lights that cause the glitter. Filament bulbs like our stove hood.”
“Oh, I thought you said fluorescent?”
“I meant halogen. But I can’t fully guarantee that. I’m basing this on what lights make your engagement ring sparkle.”
“Yeah diamonds and glitter mascara are very similar. 😉 Oh maybe I can test it at the our stove. Before I leave for boxing.”
“Either way nobody would care if your mascara glittered or not.”
“I care. It looks stupid. Black glitter is fine. Blue glitter… is just ridiculous.”
“At boxing nobody would likely notice.”
“Some things must not be left to chance.”
“Actually Floyd Mayweather wore gold shorts for his last fight.”
“And if I get to be as good as Floyd Mayweather I’ll wear glitter blue mascara.”
“I think I’ve seen flashier things than blue sparkle in the boxing ring. Lol”
“Lol”
I love our text conversations. 🙂
On another boxing note, I have been trying to find boxing shoes for a long time, because my running shoes really aren’t cutting it in boxing. Running shoes are pretty much built assuming you’re only moving your feet forward and backward… not side to side. So after only a couple of boxing sessions, I typically see my running shoes start to develop holes in the sides of the shoes (typically the outer little-toe side of the shoe) from all the side-to-side motion in boxing. Mike and I have been to several sporting goods stores in the Seattle area looking for boxing shoes with no luck. I basically have three issues finding boxing shoes.
- There isn’t actually such a thing as “boxing shoes”. There are wrestling shoes that boxers also wear.
- How many female wrestlers have you ever heard of? None? Exactly. So there really aren’t women’s wrestling shoes. Women get men’s wrestling shoes.
- So, since I had to get men’s wrestling shoes, I knew I’d have to try them on before I bought them since I literally had no idea what size wrestling shoe I would wear in men’s sizing.
Mike and I found some wrestling shoes at a Big 5 Sporting Goods store, but the smallest size they had was a size 8 in men’s. I tried that on, and it was way too big. So this weekend, Mike kindly agreed to drive me all the way to Issaquah (which feels like it’s SO FAR AWAY, because it’s way east of Bellevue but is actually only 17 miles away) because there’s a big Dick’s Sporting Goods there. As it turned out, they had a good selection of wrestling shoes! I was pretty determined that I wanted either Nike’s or Asiics because those are the big two providers of wrestling shoes (Nike has traditionally been the main provider, but they seem to be moving out of the space and Asiics is moving in). I found a pair of 7.5’s and tried those on. Hmm. They were ok… but kind of big. I tried 7’s next. Those were good. I had just about decided to go with those, when Mike handed me another pair to try. They were a size 6 and were a boy’s shoe instead of men’s and I was pretty confident they would be way too small but I tried them on anyway. And as it turned out… they fit perfectly. But they weren’t even men’s shoes… they were boy’s! And they weren’t Asiics or Nikes… they were Adidas (which to me feels like a very “has-been” 80’s brand… sorry to anyone who loves Adidas or works for Adidas or is sponsored by Adidas).
I frowned down at them.
“I can’t get boy’s shoes… it’s humiliating.”
“No,” Mike said. “It’s totally fine. You just have small feet.”
“I do not have small feet,” I said defensively. “I wear 8.5 in women’s running shoes. There is nothing small about my feet.”
“Well, they’re a boy’s size,” Mike replied. “And I like how these shoes look. Besides, they are cheap because they’re kids shoes. That’s nice.”
I couldn’t really argue with him, since that seemed to be the objective truth.
I tried a different tactic. “But they’re ADIDAS! That’s an 80’s brand! What do they have to do with boxing?!”
“It’s pretty hard to argue with the price,” Mike shrugged. “I think Adidas are fine. They make a lot of soccer shoes. See?” he said, pointing to the soccer shoe section made up largely of Adidas shoes.
I squinted at the shoes. “All the ugly 80’s styled ones are Adidas. The other brands are better for soccer shoes.”
Long story short, I walked out with the Adidas. #firstworldproblems
And now I have boxing shoes! Which I’m excited to try out Monday night!
Today Mike has been cleaning algae and gunk off of the roof in preparation for winter. I’ve been cooking. And Piper has been enjoying the sunshine after a week of rain! I hope the nice weather lasts! Our October this year was the rainiest in Seattle on record! Typically we get 3 inches of rain; this October we got 10! We are ready for some sunny days to offset all the water. 🙂
rainydayrunner 