A very long and happy walk

Oh, hello, Weekend Reader!  You didn't think I'd bail on my post-every-day resolution on November 5, did you?

Today was a glorious and wide open day, and it coincided with every one 58 of the degrees I mentioned in yesterday's post.  I was thrilled to be able to spend the day outside.  Josh and I left our home for a walk at 11 a.m. and got back at 4:30.  That's a real good walk. 

We achieved:

1. Two stops for tea.  The first time was at Starbucks, and we pulled up two chairs at an outside table.  With gloves, my puffy LL Bean vest from college and a sweatshirt from high school, the weather was perfect: warm enough to allow sitting outside comfortably and cool enough to stroll around the neighborhood without overheating.  There were lots of people making their Saturday morning shopping rounds and lots of other friends.

2. Football.  This wasn't part of our plan at the start of the walk, but we ended up at our alma mater to watch the football team play its final game of the season.  We found friends there and watched our team chalk up a big margin of victory against its opponent.  Yes!  I usually try to see at least one or two games each season, and this was a good one to catch.

3. Fall.  More fall, more leaves.  Next week's forecast includes possible s-n-o-w, so we walked home after the football game and I loved the crunch-crunch of the leaf piles created by the weekend's gusty winds.

Then, with tea on the brain, we got more tea at TeaSource, a beautiful shop in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood.  TeaSource has a huge selection of both actual tea and accessories for tea.  Is it poor form to take photos in a store?  I quietly grabbed just a few, mostly because of this gorgeous row of teapots:

Josh and I studied the tea catalog and then approached the wall of tea to make our selection.

We chose lemon sunset, peppermint, peach paradise and chamomile.  This sounds like a lot of tea.  It is!

Okay, we are set for a long time.  Please come over and enjoy a cup of tea (or 20) with us! 

Oatmeal champion and other fall things

The weather is peppy this week!

Tomorrow is supposed to be 58 degrees.  Yesterday the high was 50.  I went for a stroll outside after work yesterday, and with lots of warm late afternoon sunlight streaming through the trees, I was downright comfortable.  Friends in warmer climates, you are probably cringing at the mere mention of me already linking words like "50 degrees" and "warm" and "comfortable."  Trust me: I gotta strike while the iron is hot...or whatever.  You know what I mean.

Anyway, I'll get to take another walk this afternoon because I'm dropping my car back off at the shop because it is squealing again.  Most people in my life have lost track of where my car is in the cycle of just fixed and ought to be fixed.  It is a fine little vehicle that has treated me well over the years - even though I learned how to drive a stick shift on this car and probably didn't treat it well for awhile during that process.  But lately, it has revealed an alternator belt that is extremely disagreeable.  I hope this is the repair that finally shows that belt who's boss.

Before I get too riled up, let's pause to look at a photo of leaves.  On my walk yesterday, I encountered a long stretch of sidewalk completely clear of leaves.  Then I saw this red, red tree that must have lost everything with one big gust.  Or else I had just missed a party that involving people throwing around big handfuls of red confetti!

This post is a big pile of ramble.  To continue on that theme, I will share a mini-triumph from this morning.  Yesterday I went to Whole Foods to get some bulk oatmeal because fall is Oatmeal Time and Josh and I demolished our supply.

Does anyone else have difficulty eyeballing how much of a bulk item is appropriate?  I feel like I always come home with, like, two cups of oatmeal and six cups of coriander.  I was scooping...and scooping...and scooping the oatmeal and stopped at a completely random amount.

This morning, I gingerly poured the bag of oats into my jar, still without a clue of its quantity.  (I told you, eyeballing is not my thing.)  LOOK!

That's pre-breakfast.  Post-breakfast: filled to the brim and not one oat more!  (I think that man on the ESPN The Magazine cover is reaching out for some oatmeal, now that I look at it closer.) 

We celebrate the little things at Miles and Laurel.

One more little thing: My favorite weather involves cold, crispy nights and early mornings that turn into warm, sunny days.  (Hi, Colorado!)  There are a few weeks of fall in Minnesota like that, and we're in that stretch now.  I've started scraping ice off my windshield in the mornings...but I haven't seen this too often yet. 

That's frost, all right.  Later in the fall, it will be a glittery crispy white that covers every blade of grass.  Sometimes it covers all of the trees, which is one of the most beautiful sights in the world.  This is just a tiny hint of what's to come.  

Happy frosty Friday!  And good luck to everyone running the New York City Marathon!  Hope your weekend is a good one.

Beginner spinner

Last night, with yesterday's goal post (hahaha) fresh in my mind, I went home from work, dawdled a little bit and then got ready for the gym.  My gym is not far from my front door and the weather was 48 degrees and not windy, so I decided to ride my bike over.  I haven't been using it nearly enough the past couple of months.  I'm hoping there will be at least several comparable afternoons in the coming weeks that will allow some fall rides. 

I clipped on my helmet and pedaled away, and I was happy as a clam.  I used to ride this bike on trails, but it's my town bike now.  (Mostly because, well, I stopped riding trails.)  Anyway, the point is that it's hard to feel anything but joyful when you're sitting upright on a bike, cruising around town.

Then I realized that I was riding a bike to the gym...to ride a bike at the gym. 

(The kids today are using this acronym "SMH," which means "Shaking My Head."  I never really found a good use for the little ditty until now.  SMH.)

I signed up for Beginning Spinning, puttered around on the elliptical trainer for awhile, and then went into the spinning studio.  There were two other women plus the instructor, who was super friendly.  She asked if anyone was a little nervous, and I meant to raise one hand partway (nonchalantly, of course) and accidentally raised both hands.  And no one else raised their hand.  Ugh.

I felt nervous because I am generally an enthusiastic but unskilled participant in group fitness classes, and I'm not being charmingly self-deprecating.  But the instructor - who was great, by the way - put me at ease right away by explaining away any reason for nerves.  "It's funny to me that people are intimidated by spinning, of all group fitness classes," Jodi told us.  "They're afraid of spinning - the class where you're on a stationary object that you control!"

Well, when you put it that way, I'm all in!  I pick spinning over step aerobics any day!

The class was 30 minutes long and super intro, which was perfect.  We learned how to adjust the bikes, and Jodi walked us through what each type of spinning class involved.  I left class feeling excited about trying a full class, pronto.

Then I biked westward into the sunset - literally.  It was the most beautiful sunset I've seen in a long time.  The air was crisp and I cruised along in the night (carefully) and oohed and aahed.  I didn't grab any photos, because I left my camera at home with the rationale that it was silly and creepy to bring it to the gym.  That's probably true, but I think it's just another nudge to upgrade my phone to include a better camera.  Is it finally iPhone time?

By the time I got closer to home, the sunset was gone - but the view was still pretty.

This was a good start to my November resolutions.  My next benchmark: whether I can make it to a 6 a.m. spin class.

Gooooooooooooal(s)!

January gets all the shiny PR buzz about being the best month for resolutions, but if you ask me, November is a dark horse. 

I usually have a big race in October, so there's an inevitable sense of "what's next?" lurking when the calendar flips to November.  Without the major mileage that comes with marathon training, my hours outside of work are less structured.  The days are a little darker and the weather is a little less conducive for impromptu picnics, bike rides and general outdoor lounging, so it's a perfect time of year to shake things up.  I've heard that a good habit takes two weeks to form into a routine, so it's a good window of time between now and Thanksgiving, when the holiday rush begins.  (I'm ignoring the consumer calendar, which seemed to give the green light on the holiday rush last week.)

Why not take a few good risks this month?

My goals fall into three categories, which I have conveniently manipulated to all begin with the letter C to make them more memorable (for me): Creative, Community and Classes. 

Creative:

Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month?  Some people call it NaNoWriMo, which sounds cooler to me.  It's a big crazy challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in November, and there is a large online community built around the project for support and cheer and advice.  I am not quite ready for this year - maybe in 2012 - but I'm putting my own spin on it and blowing a whistle to kick off Miles And Laurel Write Every Day In November (or MALWEDIN, for short) Month.  That acronym is not as catchy.  Simply put: My goal is to have a new post pop up daily.  Get ready!

Side goal: You've heard me mumbling recently about my camera and how I use it.  I'm going to go to the library to get a photography book (or print out my camera's manual and actually read it).  I will stop adding sidenotes about my camera because I will be busy actually learning instead of just talking about learning. 

Community:

I've written before about Bolder Options, a year-long mentoring program in Minnesota.  It's hard for me to emphasize enough how much I appreciate and admire this organization and its staff.  My mentee and I graduated from the program last year and still meet regularly, and it's a priority for me to continue that relationship.  But Bolder Options has a long list of kids waiting to be matched with a mentor, and I also really want that list to get shorter. This month, I'm starting the process of working with a new youth in the program. I'm excited and nervous to begin - just like how I felt before I started last time - but now I have the added benefit of already knowing how rewarding the challenge can be.  

(P.S. See me if you want to learn more - or perhaps more accurately, if you want to be bombarded with information about how much I believe in this organization.)

Classes:

I'll maintain my mileage base for running this fall and winter, but without a race looming on the horizon, it's a good time (physically and mentally) to mix up my fitness routine. Yesterday I signed up for a boot camp workout class at work which will meet twice per week over the lunch hour beginning next week.  Yikes.  I am nervous for this one already.  I haven't lifted weights in way too long.  I am also hoping to learn more about spinning - you know, the indoor cycling classes.  There's a beginning spinning class every Wednesday evening at my YWCA, and I typed all that out not for your benefit but for mine (selfish!) so I actually go.  Tonight.  Wish me luck.

I think that's enough to keep me out of trouble this month.  If you picked one goal for November, Reader, what would it be? 

Files, not piles: the recipe edition

Today we shall discuss the joys of organizing one's recipe collection.

Zzzzzzz.  Snore.  With that opening, I'm even feeling drowsy myself.

No!  Stick with me for a minute.  This stuff is fun!

I have a big binder for recipes that my mom gave me when I moved into my first real kitchen, the summer before my junior year of college. This book is out of control.  It's also probably one of my most prized possessions, if that's not too dramatic to say.

In the last few years, I've started to enjoy both cooking and learning about cooking, and the binder has grown exponentially thanks to magazine clippings and internet search results.  It goes through periods of woeful neglect that actually run in tandem with great cooking stretches, because I shove both new and beloved recipes in the front of the binder instead of neatly filing them away. 

Maybe it's like how an artist's studio is the messiest when she is doing her best work? 

No, my cooking is definitely not good enough to employ that comparison.

Here are my sections, which I love because they are structured by tabbed dividers in my mom's handwriting:

• Drinks (this section has morphed into a hodgepodge of drinks and breakfast)
• Appetizers (I don't really have a lot here, either)
• Salads
• Mis. (I have scribbled "Soups" on the front of this divider)
• Pastas
• Meatless entrees (this is a divider I added myself with one of the extras)
• Meats
• Desserts (yum)

With all the fall soup adventures, a monstrous pile of bulky recipes had accumulated at the front of the binder.  That's when it's high time to create files, not piles - another shout-out to my mom, who uttered this mantra frequently upon seeing the chaotic condition of my room as a youth.

I sit down with a pair of scissors and a roll of tape and start sorting through the pile, trimming the excess paper that takes up precious space in the book and taping recipes together that had been split onto two pages. Then I have to find space for each one in its proper section.

The peanut butter is not part of the process, just moral support.

Part of this process is editing recipes, too, and I don't mean the content.  It's the quantity.  I sometimes find the exact same soup recipe printed twice, months or even years apart, and I know it's either time to actually cook it or discard it.  Some recipes seem hopelessly out of season now - I'm looking at you, Grilled Corn Guacamole. I frown at those and sometimes pitch them into the garbage, because in June it feels like I'll never need to cook chili ever again, and in January I just know I'll never lay eyes on another summer squash for the rest of my life.  (For what it's worth, I'm just beginning to get better with not doing this with gloves and hats every spring.)

I have to confess that my organization plans aren't just practical in nature.  I love to look at the recipes because, like old photos, they're linked to little snapshots of time and place.  Even though I cooked the Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad recipe exactly one time, I don't want to junk it because it was the first Fancy Dinner I cooked for Josh.  My main memory from that cooking process was how impressed I was with myself because I made my own croutons.  I have a locro de papa recipe because I loved potato soup when I went to Ecuador in college.  I've never made it but have saved half a page for it in my book since 2004. There's a printed email from 2005 detailing a meal I ate on a backpacking trip in Arkansas during spring break that year.  I can't bear to tear these pages out of the book.  

Reader, are you all business, or do you keep some recipes in your collection for sentimental reasons?

And I haven't even addressed the mangled, loved recipes that can't really be contained in their pages.  Isn't this how a good recipe should look: all stained and crumpled?

Sorting through my recipe book this week was downright comforting, not unlike how I imagine some people find scrapbooking relaxing.  I snipped away at recipes, found ideas about which I had forgotten, thought about future projects and remembered the meals that emerged from these instructions. 

I have been very-nearly out of space for ages, and I'm not sure what will happen when I can't physically cram one more recipe into the laminated pages.  If you like cooking and thus presumably aren't asleep by now, what does your collection look like?  Should I start from scratch with a new book, taking a chronological approach because this collection isn't unlike a journal?  Or should I group the recipes by type, sorting them between two books?

I have no clue, but I'm not worried about it.  The book is stuffed with recipes properly filed away - for now.