Where does the time go?

I haven't been great about posting.  One would think with unemployment I'd have all sorts of free time, but my schedule at the Y is extremely spread out, so I'll teach a class, have one- or two-hour break, teach another class, etc.  It can get old, but at least they're paid hours.  Needless to say, those one- or two-hour breaks get eaten up pretty quickly.  One of these days I'll get back into a full-time job with a regular schedule...

Until then, I find myself regularly checking blogs.  One blog I've recently discovered & check obsessively is Refrigerator Soup.  It's a blog which features new recipes everyday - they're only requirements to be featured on the site are "great recipes accompanied by great photography."  They keep their displays limited to 40 per day to ensure the recipes will be displayed for a decent amount of time.  Looking through the various recipes, you'll see submissions by blogs from all over the world - fantastic!  Lots of variety too - if you like vegan, raw, gluten-free, whatever, you can probably find it here.  If you like to cook, bake, or make a mess in the kitchen while pretending to be a "cook" or "baker" (that's my forte), check out this website.  It's a great way to find new recipes & stumble upon recipe blogs that you may find becoming a personal favorite.

It's the site that brought me to a recipe for the breakfast pastry I'm shown making in the top two pictures.

Mmm, shower water...

This is a common sight in the bathroom when someone is taking a shower.  Brewer has a deep fascination with showers (well, just about anything), and most especially, shower water.  Odd, yes.  If you happen to get near him while you're showering, he immediately tries to lick the shower water off your leg - even if it's soapy water.  We can't figure it out; my only guess is he likes the warm water.  Needless to say, it's guaranteed if you're in the shower & the bathroom door is cracked slightly, you'll turn around to see a big brown head staring up at you in fascination.

Homemade Root Beer. Yum yum yum.

Along with plenty of homebrew beer, we're planning to have a non-alcoholic homebrew of sorts at the wedding: root beer!  We'd like to make sure to have a non-alcoholic drink for any of the kiddos, or those of us still kids at heart.  As what we've done recently with everything we're doing "DIY style," we decided to do a practice run of the root beer.  SUPER EASY.  Root beer does not have to ferment, so it was basically the process of mixing all ingredients in keg, connecting the CO2, allow to pressurize, & enjoy.

We decided to go with force carbonation (once liquid mixture is in the keg, using a CO2 tank hooked to the keg & force the CO2 into the liquid - wala! carbonation) - the other option is to carbonate using champagne yeast, which runs very two important risks: a slight amount of alcohol present in the liquid (um, this defeats our purpose for having root beer) & creating too much pressure in the bottles, leading to sticky messy exploding bottles.  No thanks.  We're planning to bottle the root beer for the wedding, so to ease the process of bottling already carbonated root beer from a keg (picture lots of foam spilling all over the place), Steve bought a handy dandy little object that we hook up to the keg which allows one to bottle the carbonated liquid without all the foam.  I don't know what the object looks like, the name of it, or how it works, but when we get to that process, I'll post pictures.  All I know is it allows you to bottle the bubbly stuff without filling the bottle entirely with foam.  Pretty cool.

Of course, after our trial run root beer was kegged, we decided to make root beer floats for dessert.  Oh my, so delicious.  The root beer is not the sugary sweet, watery stuff you get at the store.  It's sweet with a nice hint of spiciness & a yummy, creamy texture.  Real root beer.  :)

I'm edumacated!

"Well gee, that there is a mighty fine looking piece of paper ya got yourself sitting there on that there table over yonder."

"Thank you kindly.  I now join the ranks of only 9.4% of the United States population 25 years & older that hold a graduate degree.  My brain is full of worldy knowledge & I now face a boat load of debt.  And I'm unemployed."

"But that there is one mighty fine looking piece of paper."

"Yes, yes it is."

"I especially like the gold filigree."

*Sigh*

Workouts

I guess my knee has heeled - I haven't felt any tightness recently.  Maybe just another thing about getting older...the occasional ache or pain?

Sun
Snowshoeing

Mon
Rest day

Tues
30 min "cycling class" (self-taught cycling on a stationary bike)
PowerFlex
20 min yoga DVD

Wed
Cycling class X 2 (I took the morning cycling class & then was asked by the noon cycling instructor to sub due to a sick kiddo)

Thurs
Cycling class
PowerFlex

Fri
Cycling class
Run 25 min w/dogs & Steve at a new gravel trail outside of town
Zumba

The rest of the story...

Map for Cutler Draw, the groomed snowshoe/xcountry ski place that allows dogs.  Look closely at the names...

Gidget LOVES snow

One of my favorite pictures of Brewer & me

Steve & sun dappling through the trees

Sun warming the rocks

Guinness & his buddy Steve

Beauty.  Looking into Mutt Meadows

"Hey!  Whadja find?!" (Gidget & Brewer)

This is what happens when you try to capture a picture of Brewer while he's running toward you.

"Wheeeee!  I LOVE SNOW!" (Gidget)

Gidget & her buddy Chick

Cross country skiing/Snowshoeing

On January 2, Steve & I spent a wonderful afternoon at our favorite ski/snowshoe place with the dogs.  Before I continue with the rest of the pictures, please enjoy the hilarity of Brewer jumping for snowballs...

And there you have it...  Brewer jumping like his legs are pogo sticks.