Madison Flashback

Exactly a year ago, I was anxiously putzing around my apartment, running errands to Target, and basking in the glory of the couch Kenzie and I had just assembled together, with only the help of an Allen wrench and a bottle of white wine (might I add that the couch we speak of is still perfectly in tact). 

I've been in Madison for a year, and it feels both comfortable and foreign. The Farmers' Market still seems strange due to the ritualistic, counterclockwise route all of the patrons take to each stall. But now, instead of taking a lap with the rest of the crowd, I know the stalls I like and go straight there to buy the groceries I want. 

I still love running along Lake Monona, but I still haven't found the perfect five mile loop that I can rely on for a challenging and mindless escape from my own brain. For that reason I will always miss St. Joe's and St. Mary's Lakes.

I guess what's most surreal to me is that Coffee for Lunch became what it is in Madison. It has kept me sane and challenged me to keep doing things better, keep taking prettier pictures, keep writing words you may want to read.

This is post 162. It's not a monumental or significant number, but it means that there have been 162 times when I've clicked publish.

Because let's be real, I've sat down to write a lot of things that y'all never get to read. To that I'll say You're Welcome.

Thanks for repinning Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies, thanks for taking your parents to Madison Sourdough because you read it on the blog, thanks for handling my neuroses during Half Marathon training.

I'm going to go make a tasty salad for you now. You'll like it, I promise.

My Favorite Workout DVDs

When I'm on the road, I don't have a ton of flexibility in terms of my workouts. Limited space, time, and energy all leave me looking for the most efficient and effective workout to counter balance all of the restaurant and airport food I have to survive on when I'm traveling for business.

I bring a tennis ball with me so that I can massage my own back. There's very little room in this bag for exercise gear.

To make matters even more complicated, I have some self-imposed rules and personal predispositions that contribute to the tricky business of calorie burn on the road.

1) I don't run outside alone when I travel. Safety thing.
2) Hotel gyms are always crowded when I want to work out, since I'm on the same working stiff schedule as everyone else.
3) I hate the treadmill.
4) Travel/time zone changes make me sleepy in the mornings when I like to work out.
5) My compulsion to be social and eat dinner with the group almost always eliminates the option to work out after work.

So what's a girl to do? Bring DVDs!

Workout videos make it really easy to get a workout in with little to no conscious effort (other than bringing said DVD with you). I've even resorted to high-tech solutions of recording DVDs onto my iPad so I don't even have to bring a DVD with me.
 

This is a highly-specialized feat of engineering, as you can probably tell.

So here's a list of my favorite DVDs to bring with me on the road! Most are about 30 minutes, and you can do all of them without lugging handweights with you! Let's get listing!

1) Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown

Yoga Meltdown is my favorite yoga DVD to recommend to people who say to me, "I want to try yoga, but ________". I think the people are weird, I don't want anyone to tell me to chant, I'm not flexible, I don't want to stand in a 100 degree room for an hour.

These are all valid points. Jillian's workouts (Level 1 and Level 2), are 30 minutes long and require nothing but your own body weight and a mat if you're on a hard surface. It also introduces you to yoga poses, but instead of taking you through a "traditional" flow, she takes you into a pose and then directs you to "rep it out", creating the cardio burn you rarely get from a regular yoga class, while still practicing the poses.

This is the yoga DVD I recommended to my brother. If you're sensitive to the "yoga-ness" of yoga, this DVD is for you.


2) Tony Horton 10-Minute Trainer

You've most likely seen infomercials for these DVDs if you've ever been watching tv between the hours of 2am and 6am. And personally, I think a ten minute workout is a joke. But the two DVDs that come with the 10-Minute trainer include 5 workouts, so i like to do two or three at a time and count it as a solid effort.

All of the moves in these workouts require either a resistance band or your own body weight. There's no dawdling around with water breaks, so you're working out every stinking second.It takes my mind off of how many emails are flooding my inbox at that moment, so I'm a fan!

3) Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30

This DVD was born out of her other 30-Day DVD 30 Day Shred, and it's just as awesome. Each of the 4 30 minute workouts is comprised of three circuits, each circuit with 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs.

These workouts will kick your butt, but you do need a set of handweights to do some of the strength moves. However, you can improvise with a resistance band or two full bottles of water since it's darn-right silly to travel with handweights in your carry-on.

4) Bob Harper's Yoga for the Warrior

If you find youself with a little more than thirty minutes and in need of a solid power flow yoga class, DO THIS DVD. Hands down best respresentation of a real yoga class that has ever been recorded on DVD. Bob gives really clear instructions, the sequence of poses is challenging, and it gets your heart rate up. A solid choice.

5) Jillian Michaels Banish Fat Boost Metabolism

Wait, another Jillian DVD? Yes, she's awesome and she makes a great travel workout. Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism is a cardio-based workout that incorporates strength and ab moves too. Again, you don't need anything but your own body weight and your hotel room. It's amazing how much of a workout you get in these 45 minutes with traditional calisthenics and kickboxing moves.

If you don't have 45 minutes, shut it off after 30. You'll have plenty of sweat to show for it.

6) Shiva Rea Fluid Power Vinyasa Flow Yoga

This pick is kind of my wildcard, so I'll recommend it to those who are looking for a yoga DVD in particular. Her voice and delivery is very much in the "yogi" tradition - she is soft spoken, talks about melting your heart to the earth, and really likes a bongo and steel drum soundtrack.

Aesthetic elements aside, the DVD itself rocks. The preconfigured workouts are great (despite being on the long side), but this DVD also gives you the option to choose segments of each workout individually to create your own custom workout.

So if you know you have 35 minutes to work out, you can choose any of the 3 to15 minute long segments that will then play back to back without having to fast forward through parts you don't want to do. A la carte yoga if you will.

Alright, what are you waiting for? Definitely not the hotel gym treadmill! Get movin'!

Weekend Link List

Hey hey what up! I hope you're as stoked for the weekend as I am, because you deserve to be. Especially if you didn't take any vacation either and had that feeling when you woke up on Wednesday of, "It's Saturday!", only to remember that it was just Wendnesday.

I went to trivia last night and I knew a crazy amount of answers. Like, more than zero. Like, second place status amount of answers. Who knew that my seventh grade obsession with Good Charlotte would be so useful in my adult life? Unfortunately, the bar that was holding trivia asked us all to evacuate right before the LAST QUESTION because of a kitchen fire. WHY ME?!?!

But none of that matters now because the weekend is almost here! And you know what that means...Weekend Link List! And we're off!

BBQ pulled pork inside a cheddar scallion cupcake?! WHAT?

I can't get over these pandas. Too cute!

The 10 Types of Writer's Block and how to overcome them.

A great article on Anderson Cooper's coming out.

I love these BAGGU pouches. Maybe these will help me keep my monstrous bag organized?

Try this website before you hand in that paper you didn't really research.

I think this performance? demo? experiment? is both creepy and fascinating.

If you need a little inspiration come Monday morning, watch any of these videos.

Words are going extinct and you can help save them!

Sometimes we need our faith in humanity restored.

And if that didn't restore your faith, watch this proposal (if you haven't already). Talk about true love.

Ride Your Bike to Work Day

I know, I know. The "official" Bike to Work Day was May 18, and I definitely drove my SUV to work that day.

But I made up for it on Tuesday! I rode my bike to work! All by myself!

When I had this brilliant idea, I didn't think to check the forecast. In this case ignorance was bliss, because I probably would have chosen an air-conditioned, petroleum-fueled commute if I had know what kind of weather they were predicting...

When I set off at 6:15am, I thought that I had lucked out since it was a bit overcast. Even by that point I knew it was going to be pretty warm, but mentally I registered cloudy skies as a cooler ride.

Stalker people: The starting destination is the Monona Terrace, not my home, because I'm wily like that. 

I have ridden (rode? rided? hmmm...) my bike to work before, but I did some research and learned that if I plugged my starting and ending destination into Google maps and did the "walking" directions instead of the "cycling" directions, I could shave about three miles off of the route that I normally do, and it would be on much more quiet, bike friendly roads.

I'll take it!

I made sure that I had plenty of water with me and a good podcast to listen to, and then I was off!

I think this is as good a time as any to talk about how I have a propensity for getting lost. My sense of direction is more mediocre than terrible, but I can't go anywhere for the first time or on a new route without making some kind of U-turn, or pulling over on the shoulder with my hazard lights on to look up directions on my phone.

Behind the wheel or behind handlebars, it's no different.

I'm good on bike paths. Bike paths tell me where to go. They're straight, they're smooth. They're relatively carefree.

But then I make my way onto real roads, where riding a bike is the equivalent to screaming, "Hey man! I know you want to hit me with your car but you can't!" through every driver-side window.

And Madison is a bike-friendly place.

I managed to not get spite-slammed by a car on the little stretch of road in my commute when I have to act like a real vehicle, but then I started seeing "ROAD CLOSED" signs right where a needed to go.

Where are the blinking hazard lights on my bike when I need them?!

Ahhh, the Wisconsin countryside. And a road that is supposed to be paved.

So I pulled over, whipped out my phone, and tried to consruct an ad hoc detour, which did not happen in nearly as calm of a fashion that you are imagining. This is the stuff that seriously stresses me out  - not knowing where to go on a bike and showing up to a restaurant without reservations.

I need help.

Luckily there was a path up a dirt road that snaked me back by the Verona Public Library, and then put me out on a residential street that met back up with the road that I wanted to be on in the first place on the other side of the construction. Phew!

I managed to get to work in plenty of time to take a quick shower and gear up for the ride home.

I also managed to check the weather while I was at work, and realize that I was possibly in store for a REALLY  hot ride home. With a 40% chance of thunderstorms.

Nonetheless, I had to get home somehow, and a little rain and a little heat can't stop me!

That's a lie - it totally can but I really didn't have a choice at this point.

I made sure my water bottle was filled to the brim, I changed back into my cycling gear, I put on my sunscreen, and around 5:45 I set out to re-trace my tracks back to my apartment.

You know that feeling when you pull into a parking spot at the grocery store on a hot day, and between getting out of your car and walking into the store, the heat from the blacktop is radiating up your ankles like flames, and then when you look out ahead of you, you see those wavy ripples in the air because the ground is so hot?

Well, all of the roads of Tuesday had those wavy ripples, and even when I stopped to chug down a few gulps of water, I couldn't get rid of that hot scratchy feeling at the roof of my mouth.

I finally made my way home, and luckily the thunderstorms held off for the hour I was commuting back.

Never has a lukewarm shower felt so good, or so necessary.

Grease marks, sweat, and suncreen make for a hot photo, I know. Maybe I'll pitch the idea for the next SI Swimsuit edition.

For the emotional rollercoaster that this ride turned out to be, it was a total blast. I love multi-tasking my workout and my commute since they are normally opposing forces in my life (Rush my morning workout to get to my early meeting? Or frantically try to get home so I can make my 6:30pm yoga class?? AGHHH!!)

But when I know where I'm going, it's really peaceful to cruise along the tree-lined paths instead of fighting to merge with other cars on the highway or trying to make the yellow light at the last second. As one wise woman once said, "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands." - Elle Woods

See? So many benefits to riding your bike to work.

Braised Kale Fettuccine

I want to tell you about this pasta, but I'm not really sure what I want to tell you to go along with it.

The anecdotal side dish if you will.


I want to tell you that I got this recipe by way of Shutterbean, and that I religiously listen to her podcast with Joy the Baker. Because of this podcast, I just read my monthly astrological forecast on AstrologyZone. 

This reading made me miss my daily Observer horoscope readings in South Dining Hall.

For those of you who were privy to those, you're welcome.

But seriously, that Susan Miller has a gift, methinks.

I want to tell you that the word "methinks" is in the forefront of my mind because my grandfather just used it in an email he sent me. I think it's cool that my grandparents email me.

I want to tell you that I get serious joy out of getting into a hot car, especially after exiting a extremely air-conditioned building.

The hot air makes me feel like I'm getting a hug from the sun.

I also want to tell you that after being hugged by the sun for like, 30 seconds, I get really attractive upper lip sweat.

Now I want to apologize for putting that image in your head while also showing you this delicious pasta recipe. It was really pretty selfish of me to admit that to you.

I woud also like to tell you that unlike this post - which is a main course of Recipe with a side dish of Rambling - that this recipe needs no side dish. Which means a seriously simple dinner is comin' atcha.

A glass of red wine would be lovely though, don't you agree?

Braised Kale Fettuccine 
adapted from Bon Appetit by way of Shutterbean
serves 4 generously

Ingredients
1 pound kale (about 2 bunches - I use curly kale), large center ribs and stems removed, cut into inch-wide pieces
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
8 large garlic cloves, minced (the perfect time for the garlic trick, don't you think!)
1/2 pound fettuccine
2 tsp fresh lemon juice and the zest of a whole lemon
As much finely grated Parmesan as you can handle

Directions
Rinse kale. Drain, and transfer to a bowl with some water still clinging.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion and cook until soft and translucent, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and sprinkle with salt. Cook until onion is golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

Add kale and remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and toss until wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the lemon zest, cover the pot ,and reduce heat to medium-low. Continue cooking until kale is very tender, stirring occasionally and adding water by the tablespoonsful if dry, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook fettuccine (or long pasta of your choice) into a medium pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid.

Add cooked fettuccine to kale mixture. Add lemon juice and reserved cooking liquid. Sprinkle with Parmesan (about 3/4 cup) and toss to combine. Serve portions, and add more Parmesan to your liking.

Weekend Link List

Hope you're having a lovely weekend! I had technology overload this week. I realized that I spend every. stinking. moment. of my life staring at a glowing screen. For the most part, I have no choice in the matter.

Since Matt has the benefit of being my boyfriend, he gets to hear me complain about this issue, and then at the end of the rant, hear something along the lines of, "but the blog!!!!"

Then he offers a solution.

"How about you do a blog series where you handwrite your posts and then scan them in and post the written pages on the blog."

So wise. So postmodern.

This "ladder" made out of rolling pins and wooden spoons is in this cafe/bakery that I seriously dig here in Madison. Next step: find out where I can get one without stealing it off the wall. And we're off! Link listing:

Did you get tickets to see Louis C.K.'s tour?

I'm thinking you've seen this video of Sorkinisms, but it's totally worth a rewatch.

If this gin fizz doesn't sound refreshing, I don't know what does.

Frank Deford said "Texting is the literary equivalent of air kissing".

This picnic basket is the perfect complement to the fold-up table.

If famous playwrights had modern TV soulmates?

Interesting editorial on antibiotics in livestock.

Spaghetti and meatballs - vegetarian AND with quinoa? Count me in.

I'm addicted to this avocado toast.

I'm team Drake in this dispute all the way. I know it means a lot to him that I'm in his corner.