A Week of Firsts

First things first...

1. I ran a half-marathon. Oh. My. Gosh. Yes, I actually did it. I ran 13.1 miles in under 3 hours. A slow jog is really a more apt description, but hey, I never said I was going out for the Olympics.

Let's remember I'm the girl who ran the shortest races possible in high school track. I did one year of cross-country in middle school and I was awarded "Most Improved". This, in case you didn't know, is an award they give to the slowest kid on the team who just didn't know when to give up and go home to watch "Saved By The Bell".

I'll share with you all now a few pointers on running a half-marathon, since I'm so experienced now...

a. Do not under any circumstances forget to put some kind of lubricant on your feet. Very BIG mistake.

b. Do not drink Gatorade during the race. A little sugar helps you stay energized. A lot of sugar makes you kind of crazy.

c. Do not run a race with hills if you haven't trained on hills. Note: there are 3 hills in Miami. I ran over 2 of them twice in the race.

d. Do run the race with a friend. It's so fun to finish within a few minutes of each other and know you had an extra cheerleader all the way through.





The second first this week...

I cooked my very first live lobster this week. I'm toying with the idea of being a guest chef at a steak and seafood restaurant in the area, and thus felt that I'd better break myself in with an attempt at a lobster. This is not for the faint of heart. That little thing was squirmy and looked right at me before I put him in a pot of boiling water. Yes, he moved in the pot. I held in my own shrieking.

I might add that doing this with toddlers in the house took some doing. I had to put on a TV show that would keep them occupied and hoped they didn't notice that the new "fishy" I brought home was about to be cooked alive.

After our lobster was boiled for 2 minutes, it was cut in half and grilled with a lovely tarragon-lime butter. Yes, it was delicious. No, I won't be repeating this exercise anytime soon. First, these guys are expensive. Secondly, the girls kept telling me as we were sitting down to the dinner that they would NOT be eating that lobster. It was really more like pleading, "Please mommy, I don't want to eat that lobster. Mommy, I'm NOT going to eat that. Please!" Don't worry, I made them chicken nuggests instead.





3rd First... Ok, it's not a first, but a second fort that the girls made out of a plain cardboard box. Love it. Can't get enough of them and cardboard boxes.