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December 21, 2005
Absolutely Delish!
My favorite cookie evah!
Mayonnaise Sugar Cookies
1 cup mayonniase (no substitutes...lowfat makes them taste and act like rubber)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
Mix together mayo, sugar, almond extract and vanilla. Add flour, soda and salt. Roll into balls and roll in sugar (you can use colored sugar if making around the holidays). Flatten slightly with fork. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until crispy (they shouldn't be brown, just barely golden-barely).
Posted by crystallyn at 07:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 20, 2005
chocolate overload
After our fabulous xmas party this last weekend we found ourselves overloaded with sweet treats. Multiple towers of candy, plates of cookies, buckets of chocolate truffles, and if that wasn't enough, one of the directors at work decided we were going to have a cookie swap yesterday.
Sunday found me terribly sick, not hung-over sick, but my cold worsened to miserableness. Joe babied me all day as he is so excellent at doing (I have such a kick-ass husband!). But at 7:30PM he suddenly realized we hadn't made the cookies for the swap. I wanted to just bring in a tower of something but there wasn't enough of the same thing for everyone so we settled in to make my favorite cookie of all time--mayonnaise sugar cookies (oh my they are AMAZING). With Joe helping it went three times as fast as I would have muddled along on my own.
So now we have mayo sugar cookies at home too. We're going to bring them all to the Pitt over Xmas, which is what we call Pittsfield, MA. All the cousins and aunts and uncles will hopefully devour them. I've become a total slug over the last four days because of being sick and so having all the sugar, being sick and not going to the gym is taking a toll on me. Argh. And I was doing so well with my training too.
But the good thing is that I finally figured out what to get Joe for Christmas. This is always a huge travail for me--he's terribly difficult to buy for. He just doesn't want much--or they are things that are bigger than our budget. If I had my way we'd take a trip somewhere. There's nothing more awesome than running away with him and getting away from everyone and everything.
The holiday season is such a huge time of reflection for me and one of the things that I realize is how completely happy I am right now. I love my job. I have really wonderful friends. I love where we live. I have the best fucking cat on the planet. My in-laws love me. I have family that is all getting along and cares deeply about each other. I am accomplishing things all the time even if it feels like I sometimes do them slowly. With the exception of this last week I am becoming healthier than I've been since childhood. And I have the most amazing relationship with Joe. It gets better all the time. He's the single person that I could literally spend every second of the day with and not want to kill them. I am always amazed by this. After five years you might think that would change as we get more settled into marriage but it just gets cooler all the time.
I'm also looking forward to going to Ikea with AJ next week--we both have the week off and the only possible time of saneness would be mid-day. You can't get near it otherwise. And New Years--for which Joe and I finally have a party to go to!
Posted by crystallyn at 06:57 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 15, 2005
woohooo I'm on my way!
This morning I ran a whole mile straight without stopping!! I don't think I've done that since I was 13 or 14 so I consider this a massive accomplishment!!! Granted, it was a 13 min mile but still! I can work on getting faster.
I've been averaging nearly two miles every training session but it's always interspersed with walking so this is just plain cool to me. My boss wants me to run the James Joyce Ramble with her at the end of April. It's a 10k so that's a rather lofty goal but I'm going to aim for it! If I keep on the same training schedule I should be able to manage it! I think that running a race like that for my first one is actually terribly apropos since I'm such a literary lover...
The James Joyce Ramble is a charity-driven event of a nature not offered anywhere else in the world, fully integrating the elements of culture, literature and athletics.In its second decade, it is known throughout the world. Among its attractions is the scenery and ambiance of the course where each mile is named for a literary work by James Joyce, with costumed professional actors all along the way interpreting these works with staged readings accompanied by traditional music of the British Isles.
The venue of this respected 10-kilometer road race and fitness walk is in the historic New England town of Dedham, adjacent to Boston. Dedham is the government seat of Norfolk County. The race by tradition is always held on the final Sunday of April. Ramble participants are college educated professionals who are drawn from all over the country by the event's reputation as a grand spectacle of a race sanctioned by USA Track & Field and conducted on a certified 6.2 mile course with records held by Olympic medal winners.
I REALLY want to be able to do this...
Posted by crystallyn at 07:55 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 12, 2005
my new favorite website
Posted by crystallyn at 08:34 PM | TrackBack
December 10, 2005
NBA or NFL??
So I haven't fact-checked this but sadly it sounds pretty plausible. Paulette sent this along to me.
NBA????? NFL?????
36 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad checks
117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71, repeat 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 currently are defendants in lawsuits. and
84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year
Can you guess which organization this is?
It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.
Hmm.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:56 PM | TrackBack
December 07, 2005
Squidoo is live...
And here are my lenses...
One Acorn: Critical & Creative Thinking
Mobile Advertising and Mobile Marketing
The Power of Self-Learning: Constructivism
Crystal King: Shining Star
Metacognition: Thinking About Your Own Thinking
I talk a bit more about the premise behind Squidoo over on crystalking.com.
Posted by crystallyn at 10:28 PM | TrackBack
quality comfort and price--that's annoying
So last night at our company party at the Metropolitan Club, we saw Bernie of Bernie and Phyl's furniture store. And for those of you who aren't from Boston, you can just imagine. Car lot and furniture store owners all feel the need to be in their own commercials no matter where you go--WHY IS THAT?
I was glad that he was without Phyl because she drives me nuts. Most people can't tell who is Bernie and who is Phyl. She's terribly manly. Anyway, Bernie was there without Phyl. He was there with a bunch of good ol' boys, including one of his sons, who is also now featured in the commercials. WHY DO CAR LOT AND FURNITURE OWNERS FEEL LIKE THEY HAVE TO BE IN THEIR OWN COMMERCIALS? I don't get it. They are nearly always terrible and annoying. And when you annoy me too much, I boycott your stuff.
Take Bob, for example. Bob's Discount Furniture stores. Bob, who I won't even link to because I can't stand the guy. Every time he opens his mouth I change the TV or radio station.
And he has Mrs. Bob on the commercials, who is equally annoying. We have no clue who she is (we're assuming it's his wife) but she just shows up, lately without Bob, and talks about how "right" Bob is. Bob is so annoying that he refers to his stuff as "My Bob." And the commercials try to get clever but they flop miserably. Like the one where they cartoon Bob or they have dozens of Bobs (oh my god, RUN!) in the showroom. It's just plain frightening.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:35 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
December 06, 2005
Me, a runner?
Today I began week 9 of the aggressive couch to 5k plan. So basically this week I am running 18 minutes and walking 12 minutes (run for 3-4 min then walk for 1-2 min, repeat). It's really wonderful to feel my body improving. Today was a bit of a struggle but I'm getting there.
I do feel pretty cool for managing to maintain both a gym membership and a weekly exercise schedule for nearly two years straight. Exercise is a habit now--an activity that I do look forward to, that I think about and that I feel awful if I go more than a few days without moving my body around. I'm stronger than ever before and my endurance is improving. Weight loss is still slow but that will come. Having a fitness goal is better for me, I think. I'll always need to watch and track my food but even more important, I'll always need to exercise--two habits that I will have to do for the rest of my life. Sometimes I feel a bit resentful about that, but mostly I feel excited.
I was a bit of a nerdy kid growing up. I was an athlete early on, playing basketball, volleyball and softball, but eventually it wasn't cool (I was a little waver/punker chick, you see). Plus I just wasn't into the beer guzzling party scene that accompanied sports in high school. My parents couldn't understand that--they saw sports as wholesome but where I went to school it meant massive peer pressure to do things that I didn't believe in. It wasn't about the sports and so I wasn't interested.
Consequently it meant that my pursuit of knowledge and my love of food took me further and further away from the path toward building my body as a temple. I wasn't interested in taking the time to shape my body. I also have a nice little stubborn streak--my father told me that if I didn't start losing weight I would never get a boyfriend or a job, one of my girlfriends in college told me that she wished I had my body because she would love the challenge of making it beautiful...in both cases I was going to prove them wrong---I knew that finding a job and a relationship wouldn't have anything to do with my weight and well, it didn't. So I suppose I "won" that stupid battle that wasn't a battle. But in the end, I did lose--I lost a lot of years where I should have been paying attention to my health.
When I turned 30, I vowed that I would be healthier at 35 than I was at 25, and possibly at 15. I am already healthier than I was at 25 (stronger, better cholesterol, no more neck problems, 40 lbs lighter) and I'm probably not terribly far from being able to say that I'm healthier than when I was 15--plus, I still have another 6 months to try and achieve that. :-)
Along with all of that comes a wonderful sense of self-confidence. I feel better about myself. I have a great hair-do (I'm not blonde anymore, btw!!! I'm a wonderful deep fiesty red!). I am strong. My car accident wounds have healed for the most part, which is such a blessing. And with my better health has come all sorts of wonderful opportunities in my life as a whole. It's a really great feeling.
I'm SO excited that I'm becoming a runner!! Me, who probably hasn't run a mile straight since I was about 13...WILL BE running a 5k before my 35th birthday! YAY!
Posted by crystallyn at 07:59 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 05, 2005
check out
crystalking.com to find the link to my latest mobile marketing article...
Plus you really should bookmark it anyway, don't you think?
Posted by crystallyn at 06:12 PM | TrackBack
December 02, 2005
Things I Love About December
* Getting a tree, wreath, poinsettas, mistletoe
* Decorating the house! I go all out!
* Decorating the tree with our annual Xmas ritual beginnng with a really nice Joe-cooked dinner (this year it's pheasant!) followed by champagne and chocolate during the trimming--It's a Wonderful Life playing in the background.
* The annual work party. There are only 7 of us in our location so we pick a nice restaurant and go out to eat. This year it's the Metropolitan Club.
* Buying a new holiday dress
* Our annual Holiday party!
* Christmas lights up in the neighborhoods
* Snowstorms on quiet nights, a fire in the fireplace with all the xmas lights on
* Getting Christmas cards
* Christmas carols! I'm so sappy....I have tons on my iPod and I listen to them all month long.
* Catching up with lots and lots of old friends.
* Finishing up the semester (this year as a professor, not a student!)
* Cookies and candy!!
* Eggnog!!
* Christmas Eve at my in-laws. They have all the relatives drop in over the course of the night--it's such a wonderful, fun, loving evening (where we invariably all drink a little too much)
*