Where's the Beach?

7 Miles Down Wow, we may not have snow here, but we sure have the arctic blast. Yet again, it was a balmy 6 degree windchill on my walk into work. That just hurts. I was coming up with all sort of plans on how to make today a rest day, get in the run tomorrow instead, which had originally been forecast as sunny and 39 degrees. They went and changed the forecast on me. Humph. Tomorrow we actually now have a chance of some snow (nothing major mind you). So, back to today and running. It ended up being a dreadmill run. I was really dreading the run all day to be honest. I started wishing that I had packed my cold-weather running duds when I saw the temps rise up to 24 degrees. Clearly I have lost my freaking mind at this point. The half marathon training plan called for the same as last Thursday: 5-6 miles, 4 x 1:30 hill intervals, 6 gentle pickups. Considering I struggle with 3 steady-state miles on the treadmill, I knew that I was going to have to just do what I could, even if tha...

Heather vs The Crockpot Ok so you remember yesterday that I mentioned starting a crockpot dinner? Well, we ended up having leftover sushi instead. It's not because the crockpot dinner was inedible, it's because it was taking WAY too long. Yes, started it at 10 am and it was still not ready by 7pm. Clearly I need to learn to follow a few crockpot recipes or read up on cooking times before just coming up with recipes off the cuff. I had decided to try to make Vegan Crockpot Red Beans and Rice . I say try because I've never really made it. Jason used to make a red beans and rice dish for us eons ago, but he couldn't remember what he used to do. So, here's my version, with lots of notes on improvement at the end. Vegan Crockpot Red Beans and Rice Ingredients: 1 bag red beans soaked  overnight 1/2 white onion, diced 1 green bell pepper, diced 3 carrots, diced 3-4 garlic cloves, minced 4 cups water** 2 cups no-sodium vegetable broth 1 not-beef bouillon cu...