Dogfish Head 5k

Yes, that is me triumphantly crossing the finish line at the end of the Dogfish Head 5k!  It doesn't look like i'm running because I wasn't.  This actually wasn't the finish line; it is to the right of the picture.  I had already crossed it and stopped running but Alex was a bit late with the picture.  And here's my time:

Phew, cut off about 10 minutes from my previous best. Just kidding!  I took that picture later in the day.  There were people also running a 10k that morning and some took a little longer than expected.  We watched some roll in way after the hour and a half mark.

I was happy because I only did a little worse than Alex, which was way better than I hoped to run.  I didn't really care how long it took me though.  I wasn't there to race, just to have fun.

The beer started flowing at 9am sharp and I felt like I was back in college.  When else would you:
     1) run a race and then immediately drink some beers
     2) start drinking at 9am... drink some beers while eating breakfast cereal (milk? riiight)
     3) use beer as motivation to do something
Well, maybe some people still do that.

There were a lot of good beers on tap: 60 minute, punkin ale, indian brown ale, my antonia, and lawnmower.  The beer never ran out even though there were nearly 3,000 people in attendance.  That's a well planned event!

A local Bethany Beach band, Reedo and the Front Porch Offering, played the after party and they were cool guys.  Alex and I didn't win any awards for our times, but those who did got some cool stuff!

However, there was a raffle and even though we didn't win that either, a bunch of the winners had either left already or did not hear the raffle winners being announced.  They started picking random numbers and people from the crowd to take the prizes.  Alex had removed his race number and held it up in the air as a joke, but Sam, the Dogfish Head owner, saw it and gave him a wink.  Then surprise! A few raffle winners later, they called Alex's number.  Alex went up and got a nice man-hug from Sam (I hear he has a tight grip) and won a vintage bottle of Fort beer, which is brewed with raspberries and is the most expensive large bottle they sell.  I didn't get a picture of Alex and Sam, but the event photographer took one so hopefully it will be online eventually!

While everyone else was waiting in the long beer lines, we decided to walk up to the brewery to check out the store.  I had asked a volunteer earlier about the brewery tours, and she essentially told me that the tours had been booked months in advance.  I was disappointed but what can you do?

The people in the store were a bit more knowledgable though.  Actually, they were the people who gave the tours and I asked the right one!  He said the first tour was about to go out so we hopped to the front of the line and away we went.  We were lucky because the other 3 tours were packed once people found out what was going on.  We saw the boiling room, the fermenting room, and got a history of the brewery.  We both really loved the show Brewmasters so it was cool to see everything in person.  However, like most things, it is very different than on tv.  For instance, the brewery is in the middle of a neighborhood in a tiny town.  And if you ask about what happened to the show, they aren't very pleased (they say it was forced off the air by "big beer" advertisers, which I believe.)

My favorite part of the tour was the fermentation room.  Several beers are aged in wooden barrels, like Palo Santo.  Most are aged in oak, but the Palo Santo is aged in Palo Santo wood shipped in from South America and the barrel cost $150,000!  No, they do not ever replace the barrels.  "They're not making wine here!"

At the end of the tour, we bought some hard to find beers at prices that were slightly lower than retail.  I highly recommend this race!  It was a ton of fun and a great event to make a weekend out of.  We plan to attend next year, and Alex has hopes to run the 10k.  I think I'll just stick with the 5er for now.

**Fun fact from the tour: the more flavor a beer has, the more calories.  DFH World Wide Stout has 666 calories per bottle!! (Oh yeah, it's also $30 for a 4 pack)**

Rehoboh Beach in September

Yesterday Alex and I spent the day in Rehoboth Beach.  We were in the area because we had plans to run a 5k in Milton early the next morning.  It was strange being at the beach without the option to lay in the sand and listen to the surf.  The day was warm enough and there were still plenty of people down on the sand, but we just got some lunch and walked the boardwalk in our winter shoes.

We stopped for lunch at an old childhood favorite... Grotto Pizza!  We enjoyed our pizza, but afterwards I felt like such a... tourist? because there is a Grotto Pizza on every street corner! At least we didn't get any Thrashers fries.  I did try to get some Fischer's popcorn and Candy Kitchen but Alex was opposed :(

Now, I really need to tell you about what happened next.  We found the BEST ice cream place ever! Right around the corner from Grotto, just off the boardwalk, is the Ice Cream Store and they have hundreds of flavors of ice cream!  Some are homemade, and many are very odd and interesting flavors.  I wanted Alex to get the bacon ice cream (come on, right?!) but he settled on something a bit more simple - mint moose tracks.  I was very happy that they had my favorite flavor of ice cream ever, key lime pie.  The only other time I've seen key lime pie ice cream was about 5 years ago when it was a special summer flavor at Baskin Robbins.  I've been waiting for it to come back since then, but it never did.

We had to go on a little walk after that to get rid of some of those unnecessary calories and quite possibly walked to the next beach town.  On the way, I found a row of beach houses I love and singled out the house that will be mine someday.  Time to start working towards that goal!

Ahh, dreams.

And the Renovations Continue

We've been busy lately.  Now that it is cooling down outside, we are picking back up where we left off on the house.  Last week was bathroom extravaganza #3.  The other two bathrooms took a few weeks to complete, but this one is Jeremy's bathroom and he went away on vacation for just one week.  So we hustled!

Part 1: Destroy.

Part 2: Fix walls where destruction went a little overboard.

Part 3: Painting and repainting.

Part 3.5: Take break to take cool shadow pictures.

Part 4: Lay tile (oops no pictures, I was at work) and pour grout.

Part 5: Reinstall hardwares and bathroom goodies

Done and done!  I did skip some steps, like cleaning and sealing the grout, installing the trim, boring boring boring.  What we really need on this blog is more pictures of my new DSLR, right??

Time for Pumpkin

...cookies that is!  I've been a little mentally off lately.  It happens.  And today was quite a day.  I've been meaning to make these cookies for a while and I think that is as good an excuse as any.  Plus I needed the smell of pumpkin in the house.  I found this recipe online last fall (not sure where) and since then they have been my favorite.

I have always loved fall and everything that comes with it.  I'm looking forward to hot apple cider, pumpkin patches, autumn fashions, jack-o-lantern carving, and a slight chill in the air.  And of course, the annual tradition of watching Hocus Pocus while handing out candy to all the neighborhood kids.

 I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies
(Makes about 36 cookies, if you make them NORMAL sized)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canned (or fresh, recipe for that coming later) pumpkin
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (make your own! vodka+vanilla beans+time)

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
pinch of nutmeg (buy it whole and grind it yourself, trust me)
1 tsp baking power
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use less, I'm not always big on the chocolate)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º
2. In a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars.  Add the pumpkin and beat until well combined.  Add the egg and beat until well combined.  Finally, add the vanilla and yeah, beat until well combined.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking power, baking soda, and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture, about 1/3 cup at a time, until fully combined  Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.
4.  Spoon batter onto cookies sheets that have been sprayed with a non-stick cooking spray.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Watch these cookies a little more than you might some other cookies, you do not want to overcook them.  They should be soft, not crunchy.  Let cool on baking sheet and then wire rack until done.

I suggest serving them refrigerated.  Delicious!

A Stay At Home Saturday

I was lucky enough to have a 4 day weekend so I forced myself to spend one of the days at home finally finishing a few projects that have been in my head for a while.  We stopped by Joann Fabrics yesterday to buy curtain material (which I did not find, at ALL... do people not make patterned gray curtains? Bahh!) and ended up in the spray paint section.  We decided to get a little HGTV and bought a can of bronze metallic spray paint with a hammered finish.  It turned out to be an awesome purchase!

First project: remaking my ugly cheap black target picture frames with some art for the master bathroom.  I painted the frames with my hammered bronze spray.  The prints were half off at Joann and we cut them down to size.  The close up pictures that I took of the frames turned out to be blurry.  I'm still learning to use the manual settings on my DSLR!

Next easy project: finally hang that shelf in my guest room.  Hung and done! I decorated it with some pictures I bought at a bazaar years ago (which, too, are still waiting to be hung.) I'll need to make a stop by the thrift store to get some decorations for this baby.

Next project: hang the shelf in the living room that has been sitting by the tv for 2 years.  Please take note of the artwork that now adorns the shelf.  I made these in 2009 as a birthday gift for Alex.  Each one highlights something important in his life.  They also all have a double meaning (the bug has a background of the car mixed with the animal, the apple has a background of apple products mixed with the fruit, etc.) 

I finished the next project while holding my breath.  I had bought this vase on clearance a few weeks ago, but it was half blue, half black, and 100% did not fit anywhere in the house.  The shiny finish was not the right surface for the bronze spray, but I was too lazy to go out to buy a brillo pad to rough up the surface.  I went ahead and painted it anyways and hoped it would not drip off.  

It turned out great!  I filled it with some dried roses that I had from a trip to Michael's a month ago.  Bathroom is now deemed finished.  And awkward blue and black vase is now useful.

Final project: new fridge!  We finally got rid of the old fridge that had a broken light and made all my food spoil with some stainless steel.  I reorganized our two freezers into one and assigned a shelf for chicken, pork, and beef.  Yes, the pork shelf is mainly bacon.  Yes, we have a lot of meat in our freezer.  I buy it, I freeze it, and then I make a vegetarian dinner.  Who wants to deal with unfreezing meat when you get home from work?  I really need to improve my meal planning.