Unexpected Gifts

My favorite gifts are the unexpected ones. A friend going to an Elie Wiesel book signing in Boston and sending me his memoir with a signed dedication to me. Another friend stitching the name of my next cat book onto a running visor. Blair sneaking Krispy Kreme pumpkin spice doughnuts into the house and surprising me with one for breakfast. And a friend gifting me the most awesome workout tank ever.

Here's how that last one came about. Last Saturday I headed up to Virginia to the 24-hour Crooked Road Run to help pace a few friends through some miles.

Read More

Vegetarian Cookbooks From Ten Speed Press

Oh my God. Totally unexpected benefit of being an author published with Ten Speed Press/Random House? When I mentioned in an e-mail to my editor last month that I was going to Ashville to take a vegan soup making class, she offered to send me a couple of Ten Speed's newest cookbooks. A few days later I got a package in the mail with the two books you see below.

SO HAPPY. Blair calls it my cookbook porn. I loooove flipping through cookbooks, picturing all the meals I'll make. I've got about 20 recipies marked in each book to try. Kale Salad with Toasted Coconut & Sesame Oil and Panzanella (grilled tofu, sunflower sprouts, peanut butter, oven-roasted tomatoes) from Super Natural Every Day and Saffron Ravioli with Wild Mushrooms and Cashew Cheese from Candle 79

Ready for Thanksgiving to end--Blair won't let me fool around with the traditional dishes--so I can start cooking! 

Back In The Land of Cat Jokes

November has shaped up to be a busy month. The developmental edit for Does This Collar Make My Butt Look Big? A Diet Book For Cats came back this week from my editor which means I am once again buried in cat humor. 

A developmental edit is basically just the editor going through the manuscript and pointing out what she likes, what jokes she thinks fall flat, what needs more explanation, etc. For example, I had written: While other diet and exercise books encourage a healthy lifestyle based on portion control and exercise, this book promotes the more feline-friendly approach of retching up most of your calories.

The editor's comment about "retching up" was "Is there a funnier, less gross term we can use here? I know there are a lot of funny slang terms for upchucking." So my edits this morning included sorting through options like "regurgitating, disgorging, heaving up, hurling, blowing chunks, yacking, ralphing..."

Seriously, I get paid to do this. It's awesome.

Read More

Richmond 2012 Marathon: The Recap

About 3 hours after the race. I'd had one sip of beer but was so tired pretty sure I was drunk. This from my last blog post:  "Anything under 3:29:45 is a win." 

I like to cut it close. I finished Saturday's Richmond marathon with a time of 3:29:32, shaving off a whopping 13 seconds from my last marathon. 

In fact, I am THRILLED with that time. This was a challenging run for me. It's the the first marathon I've ever run where I struggled more mentally than I did physically. And let me tell you... I struggled physically as well. 

If you look at my mile splits, I was running pretty strong until mile 18. (I fell apart at mile 20, but we'll get to that in a minute.) But even before I got to mile 6, I was not in the game. I remember passing the mile 4 marker, picturing the 22 miles still in my future and thinking, "I don't want to do this."  

That's not good.

Read More