i happened to stumble upon this blog about running and cooking earlier this year and have liked reading through the by the numbers posts each month, so i’m totally gonna copy it.

2007’s numbers:

cakes
cakes baked: 12
cups of sugar: 32
eggs: 47
sticks of butter: 18.25

seriously, you need to consider your cholesterol before you decide to befriend me. sorry, everyone.

running
races run: 12
races paid for: 11
races paid for that recorded an accurate time: 9
races won: 0
personal records: 3
miles run: 359.0
hours spent running: 65 hours, 3 mins, 44 sec / 2 days, 17 hours
cost per mile for shoes: $0.30

miscellaneous
trips to chicago: 2
trips to PA: 3
photos taken: 887
jobs lost: 0!
jobs quit: 1
new clients: 14
saucer plates earned: 1
weddings: 2
sewing projects started: 5
sewing projects completed: 5

here’s what all you southerners miss out on every winter:

i read this post at seomoz.org about their unusual search queries from last month, and was inspired to share a couple of mine from the past week or so:

• best running songs playlist eats the world: i’ve been ranking pretty well for running playlist related terms, but this is a new one.
• squirrel maze plans: sorry, kara. don’t believe them it’s not true, i have nothing to do with squirrels or their maze plans.
• people-eating cheese: being the grammar whiz that i am (or pretend to be) this one seemed especially funny since “people-eating cheese” is quite different from “people eating cheese”

i don’t typically get myself a christmas present, however, i did this year. i made my mom a cookbook at tastebook.com that is filled with stuff i’ve tried and that we know is good, as well as some family recipes from her and from brian’s mom. you can upload your own recipes or you can pull from epicurious, which was handy, since about 1/3 of my recipes come from there. it took quite some time to get all this info together, and by the time i was done, i decided i’d order one for myself as well. today, the cookbooks arrived and i can already tell its going to be one of the best presents ever.

a well presented arrival:

this is what looking for a single recipe used to cause to happen:

(yep, those are lists of google adwords printed on the back of my recipes. we were running low on paper and there was apparently a recipe emergency that day.)

the same recipe, in my tastebook, in the desserts/sweet section, which is alphabetized. why, yes, that IS my very own photo - you can upload them when you create your book!

the cover:

what is now headed to the recycle bin:

you have no idea how exciting this really is. i made a pie in celebration:

apple pie with rum soaked raisins. it’s an experiment…

i kind of go on these spurts where i listen to the same song…a lot…while i’m running. ‘hooray’ by minus the bear seemed like the ideal december song, so when i recently updated my playlist, i included it in my wintery december-esque list. i remember hearing it in july, thinking, “oh, that’ll be so relevant come december,” as i hoped for maybe just a dusting of december snow this year so that it would seem just a little bit like christmas to me, instead of the “everything-is-dead-and-its-not-really-very-cold-but- we’re-going-to-forecast-snow-everytime-the-low-temp-is-below-45″ season that they call winter here. it was 75 today. SEVENTY FIVE.

hooray by minus the bear

its cold and snow’s actually on the ground of this no-snow town.
and instead of cars, street’s trafficking in sleds.
men become boys again.
and there’s a war on the corner with no guaranteed winner.
its just a snow fall of snow balls, evidence of the winter.

And i can feel my hands again.
we’re almost home.

it’s 2 pm and our snow is falling still as our good city lay still.
and our friends are packed around some no smoking bar
warming on alcohol.
we step into the silence, yeah, we step slowly and quiet.

All boys come on and girls join up
just don’t grow old.
All boys come on and girls join up
we’re almost home

This is all we want:
Time to be with us,
a home to lift the cold.

Still cold, the snow’s turning into rain and melting away.
All these days slip by us
so let’s keep them.

maybe january…

i’m a huge fan of this site. i found it via lifehacker.com because i thought the idea of wallpaper clocks was really cool. i’m not one who would consider myself into art/design, but i seriously can’t find a thing this guy has done that i don’t just love. he even made a desktop companion that will automatically flip through random desktops throughout the day and notify you when there are new wallpapers. i’ve narrowed my desktop options down to five:
one
two
three
four
five

yeah…ok maybe i’ve narrowed it to more like 10…

also, there is actually a movie coming out that i must see.

i think i’ve got a song for everything. like this one, for when i feel like going to sleep on sunday night and not waking up until sometime friday - but somehow all my work got done while i was asleep

you’re up with the sunrise, and down when the work’s been done
with excellence industry, diligence naturally
i would like to be you, just for a few habit-forming years
laziness cuts me like fine cutlery
i need a miracle - someone to help me myself
sweet jesus, i need you, forgive me this sin
not hookers or heroin, gambling or gin
it sounds so ridiculous, but i just can’t lick this
-”the longer i lay here”, pedro the lion