Runnin Runnin

Mansfield, England June 24-29, 2009

The next stop on my European tour took me far up north, to the London Luton airport. As with many instances during travel, things didn't go as smoothly as planned.

I had booked one night at a Travel Lodge "near" the hotel, and after taking the cab from the airport to the hotel, I knew I wasn't in the cheap confines of India anymore (as it was, the progression from Turkey to Greece than the UK had steadily prepared me for increasing costs of goods and services). After wincing and handing over my cab fare, I tried to enter the hotel, but with no luck. A young couple was also trying to get in, and soon another guest came out and said the hotel was closed because of water damage. Being 11 p.m., in a new country after a four hour flight, it wasn't what I wanted to hear. Eventually though, an employee came and opened the door and informed us we would be moved to a new Travel Lodge. Fair enough, and after some more waiting around, and our cabbie getting lost on the way, I finally found my way to a bed around 1 a.m.

The next day I took a taxi to the train station (which was right near the airport) and was ridiculously early. Being so early, one would think I would have enough time to figure out how to board the train.

However, I learned a valuable lesson: the train comes and the doors only open for about 30 seconds, and close, and don't open again. I was trying to be a "good passenger" and go to the carriage where my seat was labeled. Needless to say, I was too slow, and the doors closed despite my banging on them. Defeated, I stepped back and the train sped of.

How I managed to navigate around India, Nepal, and Turkey and then mess up in the UK was beyond me, and at the same time, hilarious.

After talking to a very helpful train station employee, I waited two more hours (because the next train was cancelled) and finally boarded (quickly this time) my train to Nottingham. I met a man on the train, in his late 50s, who told me both his daughters had traveled a lot like I was doing, and that really taking this kind of time out to explore is an investment in one's self. I couldn't agree with him more, though it made me think perhaps it was easier to justify the money I spent on fun in Turkey and Greece...

In Nottingham I hooked up with my friends Anne and Ed that I met in Southern India. Friday morning after a short run, we headed to Sherwood Forest to see Robin Hood's tree and, naturally, have a picnic near it.

Stylin' in Robin's hood

Seriously I was there.

Ed's mom was gracious enough to put us up for a few days, and it was really nice to be in a house again, watch TV, and have home cooked meals. The next day we headed off for a big "surprise" as Ed had told us. It turned out that a new museum was being dedicated near Mansfield and Sir David Attenborough, who is the famous host of the BBC Natural History documentaires the Life Collections, was speaking. I had only been privvy to Sir David's excellence the day before, but Ed and Anne were long time fans. After the dedication we also got to see Robin Hood's Cave (the man was all OVER this area) and I had my first ever English scones with jam and cream, and loved them.

Sir David holla-ing.

Mansfield countryside.

Later, we did a driving tour of Mansfield which culminated (for me) in the successful find of the last Twilight book. We also stopped for more tea, which Senor definitely enjoyed.

All four of us are in this pic.

The next day was the defining moment for the weekend though; our half-marathon. At the end of our Southern India tour, Ed had suggested that we go up to Mansfield and run a half marathon with him, as he wanted to get in shape before he moved to Argentina to be with his girlfriend. At the time I had been eating my way through Southern India and I was open to the idea, and once I realized it fit perfectly into my European Adventure, agreed, and we got Anne to go along with it.

We woke to a perfect morning for a race; cloudy, cool (around 55 Farenheit) and little wind. Stretched out, we made it over the start, and despite my lack of regular training, we all went for it, and I surprisingly did better than my 2006 half marathon time (though by only 5 minutes, and my 2006 half marathon was at altitude, and this one was at sea level). Regardless, we all did awesome, and had some afternoon beers to celebrate.

Me, Anne, Ed's Friend and Ed pre-race.

This guy totally beat me.

Showing off the high-five.

Ed and I in post-race glory.

After the race Anne had to head back to Northern Ireland and go do dentist-ly things and the next day I again boarded a plane, but this time to a place I had been looking forward to going to for a very long time, a land of dark beer, great accents, and men with red beards: Dublin.

Merlot Pollo

When I got home from work tonight, I thought it would be a great idea to see what Betty Crocker suggested for dinner, based on what I had in the house.


I tried to make this Chicken Nice dish, but I didn't have most what Betty recommended. So instead of white wine, I used leftover Merlot, and instead of rice, I used a tortilla, and came up with some delightful Merlot Pollo fantastico.



Directions:

• Throw in whatever red wine you have


• Sautee some chicky in that


• Take out the chicky


• Add, red, yellow, and green onions; Red, yellow, and green bell peppers, and some squash from New Year's Eve for good measure


• Throw in some Italian seasoning, and half a jalapeno pepper for good measure


• Toss the chicky back in


• Wrap it in a tortilla and serve!


• and....Voila! Merlot Pollo Fantastico.

It actually tasted quite fantastic, don't hate til you try it darlings.

Biggest Zucchini EVER

Last night after work, I decided to make zucchini bread because we had this HUGE zucchini in our fridge. As I was making it, I was talking to my good friend Tiffanie on the phone, (she's in Iowa). I was trying to describe how big the zucchini was, but I wasn't doing it justice, so I took a few pictures.


As you can see, I could play that Zucchini like the trumpet it was. Turns out I needed about 2 cups of shredded zucchini for the zucchini bread, and that shaved off about 1/5 of the monster. So there is still a large zucchini in my fridge, waiting to figure out how it should be consumed.

As I was multitasking while making the tasty bread, I mistakenly added twice the necessary amount of salt and baking powder, so I decided to add in a secret ingredient, which my counterpart in Iowa very much supported.

Turns out the secret ingredient, as well as lots and lots and lots and lots of chocolate chips, almost totally balanced out the salt. This was tasted-tested by Stacy and Kate, who had some at the Squire Lounge later last evening.

Remember, don't doubt until you try it!!!!

And Whiskey is the secret ingredient to everything good.

You better BACON believe it

Sometimes, I have ideas that some people may think of as strange. I however, don't think they are that strange. I'm the type of person who gets really really excited about what some may think are little things, for example seeing friends I haven't seen in a long time, finding $5 in a pair of jeans I haven't worn in a year, leaving work early on a Friday, and hearing certain Madonna songs unexpectedly on the jukebox.
Some months back I was thinking about how much I like bacon. To me, everything tastes better with bacon on it. It's a truth similar to, say, Christmas is always better with snow. So, I was thinking about bacon these many months ago, and thought, what would I NEVER put bacon on. Why, vanilla ice cream of course. So, from here, the idea stuck in my mind to try this at some point. There were really no takers until Stacy moved back, and she was all about the experiment. Which got me really, really excited about it all over again.
A few weeks ago we set the date for our Bacon Ice Cream to be Thursday the 12th (last night). At the start of Grey's Anatomy we began sizzlin' up that fabulous meat, cooking to desired crispiness. Then, we crumbled it and sprinkled it over that delicious vanilla ice cream. Stacy brought whipped cream for added flair, and we oozed a bit of chocolate syrup on for good measure.
THE RESULT: AMAZINGLY FANTASTIC. To quote Stacy "Thank you for the best ice cream sundae of my life." Laura's reaction, "I was a doubter, but I was wrong." Now I hope to make believers out of all of you, but I trust that many of you will not believe till you try it. Also I suggest actual bacon, because bacon bits are just gross in general.

Sassy Shower

Sunday we had a bridal shower for my good friend Kate, who is getting hitched to her fiance, Adam, on September 30th. We had an abundance of fabulous food, and she was the Princess for a Day (after all, no party is complete without the guest of honor wearing a tiara).
It was such a great time at Annie's house--and of course we had mimosas, too.



It's hard to believe we can get so many hot chicks in one place, but see it and believe it, and four people are not pictured because they had left by the time the group pic was taken. Rest assured, those ladies are hot, too.

Bounty

Laura and I have a garden plot in a community garden in the 'hood. And when I say that we have a garden, it mostly means she does all the work and I eat everything, and I maybe water the garden once in awhile. Works out well.

Yesterday Laura harvested several fabulous vegetables and some flowers that grew from the fruits of our labor. They are quite tasty. The vegetables I mean, not the flowers. Though I should try the flowers, they might taste really good, too.

She also discovered that some evil soul stole two big peppers from our plot! That's sad, stealing from fellow community gardeners.

Please enjoy the pix of our massive zucchini, pretty pink cosmos, tasty scallions, red red tomatoes, and hot! hot! hot! jalepenos.