I think I probably started running to get in shape and lose weight, but it's not completely about that for me anymore.

I run because it is the one thing in my life that is guaranteed to impress most people.

Otherwise I'm not particularly proud of where I am in life. I have a college education, sure, but I'm not using it (and I wasted a bunch of my parents money in the process). I have a job, yes (for which I am grateful) but it's a job a high schooler could do, assuming it doesn't put them to sleep first. I live in a town I don't really like. I'm working and taking classes, putting myself through hell, so that I can get a degree I will enjoy using and can be proud of.

But I also run.

Which is something most people aren't willing to put themselves through. It takes a level of commitment most people don't care to give. It certainly isn't fun, but I love the feeling of accomplishment after I'm done. Most people deem it too hard and I can impress people by telling them I run 13 miles at a time. Telling them I work at a library just doesn't quite garner the same interest.

But tell me. Why do you do what you do?

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In other news, I'm having second thoughts about this triathlon. Maybe I've burnt out from suddenly going completely balls to the wall when I'd been used to not exercising at all and jumped into a 6 day a week training plan. But really, the swim practice is a pain. I'm enjoying biking and running and I might still try swimming 400 m. when I'm at the lake next week, to see how it feels without the ends of a lane to take a break at. I skipped both swims this week, it's just such a hassle to drive to the gym, pray for a lane with only one other person in it, and then go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, for half an hour. I think I'd rather stick with strength training, running, and biking.

But we'll see. It would be cool to say I've done a triathlon. Maybe this just isn't the year for me.

As to the future of See Cat Run… I'm letting my Bluehost account expire because it's just too much money that I can't afford to waste on something I don't really care about. Whether catruns.wordpress.com will be reincarnated, I don't know. I like the idea of blogging to keep my family and friends up to date with my life, but I dread sitting down to actually write. Let's go get a drink instead.

In case you're curious I'll be having this for dinner.

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I finally caved and joined UGA's gym after hearing about how skank the pool near my house seems and after finding out that the nicer public pool is only open on weekends. I also checked to make sure that UGA has kickboards a pull buoys you can borrow while there. They do! I freaking love using the buoy, even though it's supposed to make it harder (since it puts all the focus on your arms). My flutter kick has always been my weakest point (assuming we don't factor something like butterfly into the equation) and I'm actually best at breast stroke. My legs got pretty tired doing it, but it was so much easier than freestyle. I don't trust myself to do backstroke while swimming in a straight line, and I was sharing a lane, so I didn't even try…

Today's workout called for a 30 minute swim and a 25 minute run. I reversed those a little and ran 18 minutes to the gym, enrolled, swam for 30ish minutes (might have been a few short) and ran 7 more minutes, and finished the way home with a walk.

The swim included lots of rests and I'm embarrassed to say that I came up sputtering a few times. I was stopping for 15-20 seconds after each lap for awhile and even when I decided to not really rest, I would still stand and turn around. As I get stronger I'll have to stop that. I'll admit I wanted to quit after 5 minutes, and then 10, but I told myself that I should do at least 15 to not look like a total loser. And after that I figured I could do another 10 minutes… I think I started a few minutes before 5:30 and was marking my time by the 5 minute marks, so I'm rounding up to a full 30 As soon as I walked out of the gym my arms were hurting though. I'm not looking forward to handling books at work tomorrow!

Even with resting as much as I did I think I probably covered 15-20 laps (I really should have kept count) which is about the triathlon distance of 400 meters. As long as I can do 16 laps without stopping I'll be good to go… Now can I accomplish that in seven weeks? We'll see.

I'm sorry about another pictureless post, but I wanted to share my swim experience and now I'm happily fed (sushi and miso soup) but exhausted… Good night!

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My second summer class started on my birthday and didn't end till this past Thursday. I would have done a lot better in the class had I not forgotten about two of the online reading quizzes. I'm pretty annoyed with myself for that.

In any case, I promise I'll recap my birthday soon, but it deserves it's own post. It was great, I'll tell you that much!

I don't really have any pictures for you, but I thought I'd share my latest obsession, other than Burn to Run.

About a week and a half ago I was getting really frustrated with my lack of time to exercise so I got the idea into my head that I should pump up my bicycle tires and dig out our saddle bags and started biking to work. I'm loving it! I take wipes with me and a chance of clothes for once I get to work and love the feeling I get from knowing I've already gotten in a workout.

What's even better, though, is that I really feel like I am getting a workout. With running I'm constantly fighting to breathe and it is always, always my lungs that slow me down or cause me to quit early. With biking I can make my quads burn as much or as little as I want and I may be breathing heavily at the top of a hill, but I can still breathe. I don't know, I just really love being able to push myself like that. Hubs still calls me slow though.

I love it so much that I made Hubs bike to the farmer's market with me this morning, about 10 miles round trip, and I want to go on another ride tomorrow! I'm going to give my legs a break tomorrow though, or maybe go on a run. We'll see!

I just wanted to share my new exercise interest! I've also joined Daily Mile, if anyone wants to find me!

In other news, I start training for that triathlon that I haven't signed up for yet… I'm still too chicken about the swim, but I'll be going for my first pool workout on Thursday! I'll let you know how that goes!

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Today is the one day between my two summer classes, so I got a full hour-long lunch break and got to leave at 4:00!

And even better, I got flowers at work! The flower company screwed up, they were supposed to come tomorrow (on my actual birthday), but they really, really brightened my day! I haven't ever gotten flowers at work and I don't think my coworkers have ever seen my smile so big A huge thank you to ma famille! I left them at work so that I can have a smile when I get there tomorrow too, but I'll take a picture of them sometime soon.

I have to admit that I was seriously thrown off by the flowers. I received a birthday card that said to wait until the third to open and when the flowers came I started to think I might be going a little crazy. I haven't really known what day of the week it is all week, and then everyone thinking today was my birthday, well…. I'm not going to complain about a two day birthday!

To continue the birthday fun Hubs decided to give me my gift tonight as well. I said he could give it to me at breakfast and his response was "but then you won't have time to prepare, you'll already be dressed." That raised an eyebrow The box was too small for any of the possibilities I thought of though.

He did good! And now I get to wear them tomorrow without going through several outfit changes first! I really love them, and they aren't actually a set, either. They're from a shop in town that sells a lot of local artists work, but this is buy a man called Kit Heath who is actually British. Love! I might be following in my mother's footsteps and be a bit of an anglophile. Love British history… but that's another story.

Seriously though, how pretty is that?

He also stopped by Earthfare on his way home from work and bought salad makings and cod for dinner. While he cooked, Ollie and I played

And Hubs and Gypsy read

And then he served me a delightful dinner of spinach salad with sliced walnuts and dried blueberries with balsamic vinegar, honey, and lemon juice.

And cod marinated in white wine and mustard, served over mushroom and herb couscous, with sauteed garlic and onions on top.

He's one of those people who can come up with combinations of spices off the top of his head, so there's no recipe for this. I have leftovers for tomorrow though!

I'm also very excited for dinner tomorrow night. Hubs is taking me to Farm 255! I posted about my love for Farm's food philosophy here, how they have their own farm and grown their vegetables organically while raising their animals on pasture without hormones or antibiotics. Their menu can change daily depending on the day's harvest, but this is one place that I might actually order meat from because I trust them to raise their animals humanely. In any case, I'm in love with the idea of them but have yet to actually eat from them Tomorrow's my chance! I am so, so excited.

Tomorrow my basic psyc class starts, so I'm back to no lunches and working from open to close, but I at least have dinner to look forward to. Goodnight y'all!

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I can't even remember when I last left off… Sunday morning, was it? Well Sunday evening was absolutely wonderful. I swear, I laugh harder when we see Ann and Brian than any other time. I ate a ton of guacamole, slurped some fabulous daiquiri and margarita, ate some absolutely delicious barbecue chicken, and had some lovely strawberry shortcake for dessert. I was quite full and it was all amazing. I don't regret a moment of it.

Monday was supposed to be spent studying for my final, but instead I had the pleasure of watching the boys mount a 50 inch plasma screen over a fireplace (not ours!), furniture browsed, and watched the Braves whoop some bootay. Also grocery shopped with my bff, which allowed a bit of girl talk, which we don't get enough of. We also watched Up in the Air ("I said it was good, I didn't say it wasn't depressing" – Terry) and had tacos for dinner. Yum!

So yesterday I finally got down to that studying thing (ignore the laptop and textbook in the background of the next photo) and Hubs made me an omelet for dinner! It had mushrooms, spinach, fresh basil, and onions in it, and after I took the picture I topped it with some nooch. The salsa I ate with some chips.

I actually had half the omelet for dinner and the other half for breakfast this morning, Hubs just sort of threw in the last 5 eggs

After a little bit of extra study time I think the test went pretty well. Of course, I felt that way about the last one and did not the great I was hoping for. We'll find out when grades are posted tomorrow.

After a nice, short day at work (again, excuse the perpetual mess that is known as our coffee table), Hubs and I came home to some chips and salsa and later had macaroni and cheese (the broccoli meant to accompany it was older than I thought so got tossed) and a variety of our farmers market squash with a caramelized farmers market onion. Hubs cooked the squash in evoo, nutmeg, curry, cloves, and I don't know what else (he can chime in in the comments, hint hint). It was pretty awesome. And I have more to eat on my salad tomorrow

My back is still not 100% and I'm sort of waiting on clearance before I start exercising again. I may even start with swimming! I can't wait.

But my allergies are starting to act up again and it is burning up in this apartment (hot laptop on lap doesn't help), so I'm signing off!

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My jeans have been feeling a little tight this week due to a lack of movement (being injured and all) so I've been making a conscious effort to use carrots as my first choice for hummus dippage with crackers coming in second. I've also been snacking on sugar snap peas and these lovely berries Hubs got at the store earlier this week:

Hubs and I went to the farmers market yesterday to pick up new veggies (and I was hoping for some Farm Cart for breakfast, they weren't there). We got (from the top left) a zephyr squash, patty pan squash, romanesco zucchini, golden zucchini, and regular zucchini, as well as some radishes (for Hubs), purple haze carrots (how beautiful are those?), garlic, and more spring onions. I made sure to look yesterday and our favorite vendor (who sold us the squash) is from Cedar Grove farms.

Lacking Farm Cart, we swung by a bakery called Ike and Janes on the way home. Hubs went in to buy a dozen donuts for the movers (Dan and Alex were moving) and immediately fell in love because they give a 10% discount for something different everyday. Yesterday you had to order with an Italian accent.

I have a coworker who will bring an assorted dozen to work every once in awhile to share with the office, so I knew what to expect. Hubs came back to the car raving about how they have a banana and bacon topped donut which has peanut butter icing, and Elvis donut!! He also was very excited to see which donuts were given to us in our random assortment. From the top we have: Fruity Pebbles (on top of regular glazed), chocolate iced red velvet cake (on top of a powdered cinnamon sugar), chocolate glaze, vanilla glaze, regular powdered, a blueberry?, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, chocolate iced with sprinkles, and Coco Krispies. How awesome is that? They also usually have some with nuts on top, I've had pistachio and almond in the past and pecan on Friday (I've had donuts three days in a row now), as well as a Butterfinger topped donut.

I ate the cinnamon sugar powdered yesterday, with half the blueberry (which was really good, but I didn't realize it was supposed to be flavored so didn't really notice a flavor). I had a bite of Hubs' Cinnamon Toast Crunch really good as well!) and now I'm having the Lucky Charms (a personal favorite) and red velvet cake (also a favorite) for breakfast.

We condensed two apartment into pretty efficiently. One Uhaul trip from both with about three trips of my hatchback (so much cargo space! love) and Alex's dad's SUV. Plus another handful for food and Dan's lego collection. All of the up and down was more movement than my is used to lately, so though I only carried things like empty desks drawers and pillows, my back has stiffened back up to about Wednesday's or Thursday's level. Which means I'm taking another week off exercise, which I hate. I really want to get myself set up at UGA's gym and start swimming.

But the move encouraged Hubs and I to start thinking about how we're going to decorate our new apartment, which I'm pretty excited about. Our new living room will be the exact size of our current deck… kinda awkward, but helpful with visualizations when you're already sitting out there for happy hour. We're going to give in and finally buy a flat screen and mount it to our accent wall between our book cases (the apartment complex paints one wall a different color for free!). I think it will look really good.

We're also going to start thrift store hunting for a new couch (ours is a hand me down and very sad, at this point) or maybe two love seats. Heading out this morning at about 10! I'm pretty stoked about slowly making our way towards a more grown up looking apartment.

*******

I won't be posting this evening because we won't be home till late. All of the summer holidays I grew up with my family cooking out with my parents' good friends (who are close enough that Ann and I used to explain it: if we were Episcopalian, would have been my god parents). Ann actually helped me complete my required volunteer hours for high school graduation, every other week we worked together at the local Ronald McDonald House for three years, and cooked dinner for them once a quarter. I love Ann and Brian and don't get to see them nearly as often as I would like, but we get to go to the Memorial Day cookout tonight!

Have a wonderful long weekend!

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We've had a couple of breakthroughs around here lately!

Unfortunately I'm still walking around like a hunchbacked old lady, but I'm better than yesterday and I'm going to head upstairs in a bit to try an epsom salt bath. (Think I might have done slightly better on this polisci test than on the last too, but that's neither here nor there)

But, Michael Pollan news picked up my post about the farmers market and retweeted it! I know the man himself doesn't read all the links they post, but I still feel special!

And Hubs has learned that he can eat raw peppers and squash! I kind of, somehow, missed the title of the post I took this recipe from ("Want to Eat Raw, But Don't Like Raw Food?" Yeah, don't ask) and he was a bit concerned when I told him that the cooked pasta was to be mixed in with the uncooked veggies but said he'd try it. Guess what? No problems!!!

Welcome to the Summer Squash Orzo Salad Matt posted recently.

This is one of the many recipes that has gotten starred in my google reader recently to try (so much good food, so little time!)

We, of course, had to be us and make a few substitutions. Gotta make it your own, right? Well we used one yellow squash and one zucchini and subbed in our remaining clarimore squash and golden zucchini (from the farmer's market!) for the rest. We also used the two remaining, tiny red onions from the market, left out the tomatoes (for Hubs' sake), subbed a tsp of dried parsley for a tbs fresh, and made it vegan (sshh, don't tell hubs) by leaving off the feta and salami. No olives, but we ended up adding a dash of red wine vinegar.

This was delicious! So light and fresh with the lemon juice. I'd definitely prefer a higher veggie to pasta ratio, but I certainly went back for seconds! I'm definitely keeping this recipe in mind for summer cookouts.

I have to say, I'm starting to get a bit frustrated after taking a week and a half off exercise due to injuries. I'd really like to do Gina's Summer Shape Up, but there's no way I'm going to risk anything and hurting myself again (not that I mind lounging on the couch all day instead of working…). I think I'll probably try to avoid helping Dan and Alex move this weekend… Hopefully my back will be feeling better by then, but it just seems too soon.

Off to continue babying myself with that epsom bath!

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He's been keeping me company while I've been couch and ice pack bound.

Sometime between dinner and feeding the dogs last night I seem to have hurt my back. If it's not one thing, it's another right?

Now, I've hurt my back before, in fact it was sore all of last week, if I twisted wrong it would send out a shoot of pain but I thought it was getting better.

I honestly can't pin point what I did last night that did it, but I've managed to hurt it so badly that I can't even stand up straight. I've been either crawling or hobbling (depending on who's around to see) all day. Looks like I'm getting another rest week.

I somehow managed to get out of bed, shower (mostly seated), open the office, 'run' to answer to phone calls in the back, and get back out to the car in one piece though. I took two naps this morning, made an abortive attempt at studying for my test tomorrow, and have basically been catching up with my Google Reader ever since.

I also went ahead and called my supervisor and offered to open again tomorrow since I have to be on campus for the test anyway, but she said she'd do it (thank god!). I could only find two positions to sleep in that would leave me with just a mild ache instead of stabbing pain, and as soon as my hip fell asleep and my body wanted to shift I'd be woken up with said stabbing pain again. I'm going to go to bed at my usual time and set my alarm for about 3 hours later than usual to hopefully be fairly well rested for the test.

So a major thanks to Hubs who has been taking care of the dogs, dropping me off in front of the library steps (you're not really supposed to drive there) and picking me up again an hour later. He also brought me Arby's for lunch, went to the grocery store by himself (not in a "what a big boy" way, in a we-had-planned-to-go-together way), and made me dinner.

Since grilling season is here we'd been meaning to start experimenting with recipes for portobello burgers so he bought some caps at the store today. He used this recipe to marinate and baste them, but cooked them for 30 minutes or so in the oven at 425*.

I'd never had a portobello burger before and I quite liked it, but Hubs said it was too vinegary for his taste. The rest of my tomatoes are not quite ripe, so I had mine on toasted bread with a lettuce leaf and corn and tots on the side.

My little buddy is back, so I'm going to surrender my lap to him and read over my notes before bed. Goodnight!

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I had my usual toast with Smart Balance and coconut oil for breakfast. (The oil mixes with the Smart Balance and creates this completely melt-in-your-mouth texture. I adore it, plus it provides lots of healthy fats!) After my toast I was craving something sweet so I made some peach black tea (loose-leaf, from the Dekalb Internationl Farmer's Market) and drank it with some orange blossom honey. Yum!

Isn't our teapot pretty?

She's not very big (single serving) but I love how delicate the glass is and the pretty blue handles. Hubs and I got her about a year and a half ago on clearance at Teavana (my one and only trip, sadly). There's a spiral of metal that hooks into the spout to strain the leaves out. I need to use it more often! It's just so easy to toss my leaves in the huge strainer from Hubs' old teapot which fits in the mouth of a mug. I'm not big on dirtying multiple dishes if just one will do. I'm going to make a point of using this teapot more often though.

Hubs went to Stone Mountain today to see his dad so the pups were left pretty bored. Luckily we still had a Busy Bone left, it kept Ollie (who tends to get into trouble if left un-entertained) occupied for over two hours. Awesome! Gypsy munches through hers in all of three minutes, of course. (Here he is with his last one)

Since Hubs would be out of town for two meals today, I decided it would only be fair for me to get a meal out as well. After polishing off a box of Wheat Thins and the last of my red pepper hummus for lunch I decided that a balsamic grilled salmon salad from De Palmas Italian Cafe was just what I wanted for dinner: a 4 oz filet over field greens with red onion, sweet red peppers, capers & hard boiled egg. After thinking about it for awhile I realized that I could pretty much make it for myself at home for half the price (it's a big salad, but still hard for me to justify paying $11 for). I looked up a balsamic marinade online and headed to Earthfare to buy my salmon. When I got there they had raspberry marinated filets ready for sale and that sound just as tasty! 

I cooked the filet for about 12 minutes at 350* and it came out perfect! The one time I've gotten the salad at De Palmas the salmon was overcooked but this came out perfectly tender! I'm not a big fish eater (any time I would try it at the beach as a kid I'd wake up horribly nauseous later that night, but now I'm learning to like it) so I was very pleased that I got this right my first try.

I actually split the filet in half (which came out to about 2.5 oz each) and put the other half away to eat on tomorrow's salad at lunch. My salmon was served on a bed of butter lettuce (tossed in the balsamic dressing I made last night) with fresh basil, craisins, and a sliced tomato.

It was a very tasty meal and I'm looking forward to having it again for lunch tomorrow! I'm not feeling totally satisfied though, so I may go back for the last lonely apple in the fridge (since everything else in this house requires cooking). Or maybe some more toast Back to my homework!

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