Folks, it's finally happened - my life was so exciting last week that I need THREE COUNT 'EM THREE separate posts to tell you about it. Today I'm going to tell you about the normal everyday stuff. Tomorrow I'll be back to tell you about my latest long weekend getaway (the title of this post is a hint), and the day after that I'll tell you the deets of the FLW houses that I toured on the trip.
Food
Nothing exciting happened for food during the week. Since we were all going away (the menfolk went to Boy Scout camp and I went on an adventure) we just cleaned up leftovers.
My trip was longer than the usual "go somewhere on Friday afternoon and come back Sunday at lunchtime". I left Thursday afternoon and came back late on Sunday, so that was more meals than normal to plan for. I wanted to do a mix of eating out (adventure) and food from home (cheap).
I've been craving peanut noodles, so I made up a batch and it worked well for an easy lunch or dinner. The magic of peanut noodles is that they're good hot or cold, so IMO they are the perfect road food. The changes that I made to the recipe were: regular angel hair pasta instead of brown rice noodles, added a good handful of frozen edamame beans, skipped the peanuts, and added A LOT of sambal oelek instead of a tablespoon of sriracha. 10/10 would make this again. I brought frozen breakfast burritos for breakfast and a selection of snacks and I was set.
Workouts
Week 5 of Iron - complete!
I spent a large part of my trip exploring the town where I was staying on foot. I did some run/walks to get the cardio intensity and a ton of walking. Our treadmill is back on the fritz and out of commission while waiting for a part to come in so I'll be continuing with the run/walk until its fixed.
Watching
I finished The White Lotus. If there's a season 3 I'll be there!
Reading
I put away quite a few audio books this weekend and they were all outstanding. If you've got a long drive in your future, here's my suggestion for how to fill it:
Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels by Paul Pringle is still a rave. I'm going to be thinking about it for quite a while longer.
Choosing to Run by Des Linden was everything that I hoped that it would be. We all know how Boston 2018 came out but as she was describing the race mile by mile I was in total suspense and gripping the steering wheel.
Hello Molly by Molly Shannon. Recommendation via Nicole and OMG. I don't watch SNL and I can't say that I've seen anything else that she's been in but it doesn't matter. Since I came into this one cold and not knowing what to expect I don't want to say anything except WOWZA PLEASE READ THIS (or listen to it...that's fine too).
For non-audio reads, I think I've got a DNF. I started a book called The Switch about a grandmother and granddaughter who swap houses for two months and it does them both a world of good. It's a perfectly fine book but I'm not fully reeled in. After not getting to it since mid last week it's faded in my memory and my library hold is almost over. I'm pretty sure that I'm just going to move on to the next book.
What food would you take on the road for a long weekend trip by yourself? What's the last really great non-fiction book that you read? I'm looking for another great listen (for whatever reason I prefer to read fiction but listen to non-fiction).
Yay! So glad you had an extra-long weekend adventure! I look forward to reading about it! And your peanut noodles sound delicious.
ReplyDeleteI drew a complete blank at your question about what food to take on a road trip. All the things I like to eat most require heat. Hmmm. Can I say smoothies? They don't keep particularly well, though. I guess... Kind bars? I'm very into the cranberry almond Kind bars at the moment.
I haven't read much non-fiction in the past few years. The most recent was Fuzz by Mary Roach. I adore her and her books. They are amusing and full of fun little tidbits.
I'm very much Team Heat for most of the food that I eat;-) Peanut noodles and a cold Teriyaki noodle dish were my go-to's when I was in grad school and had night classes.
DeleteI liked The Switch a lot, but read it more as a family drama than a romance. The romance was not really the main plot.
ReplyDeletePaul Pringle was on an episode of Killed (S2E1: The Doctor), which is a podcast about journalistic stories that were killed and I was yet again drawn into the story. Ha. There are a couple of updates that are more recent than the book, but if you just read the book, you might not be super excited about listening to more from Pringle. Still. That story is infuriating!
Guess what? I picked up The Switch again last night and I think I'm into it now.
DeleteYes I'm down for listening to all things Pringle! Thanks for the tip!
Looking forward to reading all 3 posts, Birchie!
ReplyDeleteNice job on your run-walking. This must be the most underrated exercise - it's doable, gives you a great cardio, can be done anytime, anywhere.
I'm very low maintenance for food road trips... some pre-cut fruit and veggies, cheese, crackers and biltong (a type of dried meat) are perfect for me. And plenty of hot cups of tea at the petrol stations! ;-)
What did you do for tea/coffee/soft drinks?
Great question! I don't drink tea or soft drinks but coffee is a must. I really like the coffee that I have at home and I'm cheap so I always bring it with me. I can't count on the places that I stay to have coffee makers, so I have a pour over filter and I just got a portable kettle so that now I can make good coffee anywhere.
DeleteOh I'm glad you liked Hello Molly. What a life! I found her fascinating, and I only vaguely knew who she was. I had read the Switch a while ago and thought it was very cute, but I'm a little fuzzy on the details. I read two really good non-fiction books last week: The Body Liberation Project and Token Black Girl.
ReplyDeletePEANUT NOODLES.
I'm so excited that more posts are forthcoming *waits with popcorn*
I've had a good track record with the SNL crew's memoirs: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Colin Jost, and now Molly. I think that if you have what it takes to get on that show that you've got a story to tell and the skills to tell it.
DeleteThose noodles look so so so good! Hmm, for a long trip by myself... I usually bring snacks and plan to eat out for most meals!
ReplyDeleteI finished Des's book last week and felt the same way! That is the last non-fiction I can recommend, ha. I mostly enjoyed listening to Molly Shannon's memoir on a long drive, and she seems like a decent person, but her reading of it annoyed me so much. I just don't think her over-the-topness is for me. Her life is very interesting and sad though :(
I am excited to hear more about your trip!
I go back and forth on bringing food/eating out. Sometimes I'm just at a loss for ideas on places to go to and it's easier to just have food on hand.
DeleteI have the Hello Molly book on my holds list after Nicole's recommendation, too.
ReplyDeleteI read The Nothing Man last week and COULD. NOT. PUT. IT. DOWN. I almost never read a book in one session, but I stayed up way too late finishing this one.
The Nothing Man! I almost DNF'd it because parts of it were too disturbing for me but another blogger wrote about it so I picked it back up, skimmed the disturbing parts, and loved it. I also really like 56 Days by the same author and I'll get to the rest of her books eventually.
DeleteGolly but Molly was so good...sorry for the pun.
Ooh! I'm excited to read about the weekend adventure! Those peanut noodles look amazing. And, I want to read all three of those books. I have a library hold on Des's, and I'll see if I can get the other two. And, I got The Switch out of the library but never ended up reading it- without even starting it I felt kind of "meh."
ReplyDeleteHey my weekend was fun but it was nothing like your weekend!!! Here's the link for folks that don't know what we're talking about: https://runnersfly.com/dunes-50k-race-recap-part-1/
DeleteYou have really been keeping busy! I need to get my hand on the Des book!
ReplyDeleteYes you do! Hypothetically if someone just ran two half marathons back to back then they should definitely treat themselves to the Des book as a reward.
DeleteOooh, can't wait for the next updates! And mmm, those peanut noodles (with your VERY acceptable edits) look fabulous. Yay for solo long weekends. And also? What kind of pour-over did you get? (I saw your reply, above, about the coffee...)
ReplyDeleteThe kind is "the cheapest piece of plastic that Amazon had about 10 years ago". It comes in handy!
DeleteYou're so good about taking your own food on trips. I usually take snacks, sometimes breakfast items, but indulge for dinner (doesn't have to be expensive, but I'll always eat out).
ReplyDeleteOK, you don't have an email on your blog. So here you go:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbc15.com/2023/05/04/new-improved-way-travel-across-200-miles-frank-lloyd-wright-history/
Engie and I welcome your foray into WI whenever you deign to join us in the great north. ;)