Tribbett Half Marathon

My latest running adventure took place last weekend up in Leland, MS at the "Hotter than Hades" Tribbett Half Marathon. Originally, Emilee and De'Dee were going to do it with me, but we all talked ourselves out of it.  Then De'Dee decided to go ahead and do it because she was able to get the Kermit mascot from Team All Ears.  She had to do it because Leland is the birthplace of Kermit the Frog.  She wasn't able to convince Emilee to run it, but I was there with bells on!

Leland is about a hundred miles away from anything, so it was an interesting journey even to get there.  I left Hattiesburg on Friday afternoon and drove to De'Dee's new cabin in Lexington.  Then after about a three hour nap and a bit of random car trouble, we drove to the Budweiser Brewery in Leland, where we were bused to the start line.

The "Facilities" at the Start Line

Now, I honestly was not expecting much from this race.  I knew that there would be about three-hundred participants, and being so far removed, I thought that would be a stretch.  Typically, when a race has a low number of participants, the amenities are few and far between, but that really was not the case here.  The water stops were well stocked with water, Gatorade, and Gu and the volunteers manning the stops were entertaining.  My only complaint was that there were not enough facilities along the course.  Pretty much what got me through the race was knowing that there was a bathroom at the finish.

The View along the Course

All in all, it was a good race.  Very flat terrain, paved most of the way with hardly any turns. But there was no shade through out the course and absolutely nothing to look at except corn and soy bean fields. So it was very boring.  But us stragglers made the best of it.  Of the three-hundred participants, all but a handful were elite runners.  So after about an hour and a half, we were the only people left on the course.  But we still had fun and made good time until around mile 9 when the heat started to get to me.  But I still managed to cross the finish at about 3:24.  Not bad, even if we were at the back of the pack.  That's still better than the WDW half back in January.

The next race I am planning on doing will be the Meridian Half or Full Marathon.  I'm not sure which one I will attempt yet, but I want to be running a three hour half by the point.  Let's see if I can make that goal!

Nailed it...

So, this project definitely deserves entry into the PinterestFail blog.  Last time I was at my parent's house, my sister and I thought it would be fun to try this recipe I found on Pinterest. It was Paula Deen's recipe for Hummingbird Cake. It sounded amazing, so I figured I would give it a shot. Well... as you can see by the pictures, things didn't quite go as planned...

I don't know what happened.  I followed the recipe exactly throughout the entire process.  I even used mom's brand new Kitchenaid mixer to make sure I got everything at the right consistency.  Everything worked out well at first.  I had the three cakes cooling and I evened them out before putting on the icing.  But once I iced the cake, disaster followed. 

I'm not really sure what happened at that point.  I think I may have put too much milk in the icing.  That caused it to be sort of runny and unable to hold it's shape.  But what ever I did, it proved disastrous for the cake.  The layers started shifting around and icing started running off the cake.  It got so bad, I had to find something to stick into it in order to keep it standing up right, hence the giant butter knife stuck in the top.  Once we cut into it, the cake completely fell apart.  Oh well. Ugly or not, the cake still tasted amazing! I'd say that this wasn't a complete failure for my first baking experience.

Exploring

The last time I was at my parents house, I decided that I would go exploring around the field and forest behind the house. It was a rather dreary day, but I figured it would give me an opportunity to indulge in my new photography obsession. Here's a few shots of what I found:

First off, I found this old chair.  I was quite fascinated by this old, abandoned chair.  Why is it here?  How did it get there?  I have no idea.  I had to get some shots of it.  Here's some of the more interesting photos I was able to get.

After messing with the chair, I walked over to the old trailer spot.  My grandmother rents this section of the property on occasion, but the area has been abandoned for a while now.  There wasn't much left, just an old, cracked foundation and some old bricks.  No interesting photos here.  But I did manage to get this weird, pointless shot of the old light pole. 

After leaving the trailer spot, I wondered over to the neighbor's pasture, where the cows followed me.  I'm not sure what was so intriguing about me, but they followed me the entire length of the field. 

It was almost like they thought I had food or something.  They would all "moo" and walk where ever I walked. But if I made a sudden movement, they'd all scatter. Then they'd start following me again. Once I got back to the chair, I decided to film what they were doing.

Weird... 

Spring Has Sprung!

Every year for as long as I can remember, springtime at my house has always revolved around flowers. My family and I would go out to local nurseries and pick out our favorite flowers and shrubs and plant them in the flowerbeds around our house.  Marigolds and zinnias, impatiens and geraniums always surrounded my home.

Now that I'm on my own, I've continued the tradition of planing flowers to brighten my day.  But being in an apartment has presented some challenges to this. Obviously, I do not have a flowerbed to play in, however, last year I installed several window boxes and pots around the apartment's balcony and stoop, to help make things more springy.  I tried several different types of plants, but only petunias and impatiens survived, and only for a short time. 

I spent a small fortune on those flowers.  But I learned from my mistakes and I'm trying something new.  This year, I've bought a small greenhouse to grow my own plants in.  It's a really cool system.  You fill the bottom with warm water, which causes the soil pellets to expand, allowing you to plant your seeds. After you've finished planting, you put the cover on and place it in an area with indirect sunlight, and wait.  No watering is necessary so it's no hassle at all!  After several weeks, you have seedlings that are ready to be planted in the ground (or in my case, pots).  Because they were so successful last year, I've decided to only plant petunias and impatiens.  That way I don't waste time on other plants that won't survive.  Also, this is a much cheaper way of gardening.  At the nursery, it's not unusual for me to spend over $40 on flowers.  Assuming that I'm successful, I will only have spent $9 all together.  That is... if it works. I'll post updates on how the seedlings are coming along as they grow!

I took pictures of the box and the finished product, but I forgot to take them off my camera.  I will add them to this post once I get them.

Happy Spring!

Chinese Fried Rice

If any of you have followed me on Facebook or on Twitter, you know that I am an Asian food fiend.  I am constantly craving Asian food.  At least once a week, I'm headed out to my favorite Chinese place to satisfy a craving.  But about a year ago, I began to realize just how much money I spend on this habit.  So, I decided to start making my own.  If I could do it right, I would satisfy myself, for half the money (and half the calories).  This soon proved problematic as I was never able to duplicate what I was used to in the restaurants.  It would always come out gummy and such.  I would try, and fail... try and fail. 

But, I came to a success a few nights ago.  I finally figured out how to duplicate Chinese Fried Rice!  Here's how I did it:

Ingredients:

Cooked White Rice

Mixed Vegetables

Cubed Chicken Breast

1 or 2 Eggs

Soy Sauce

Lemon Juice

Onion Powder

Vegetable Oil

*I don't have a set number of how much you need to use. I just kinda threw it all in as I needed it.

Heat about a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a skillet or wok until it is as hot as it can go. Then add your cubed chicken into the pan. You may also want to season the chicken with a bit of soy sauce. Once the chicken is cooked and all moisture is out, add your vegetables.  It's very important to have all of the moisture cooked out of your ingredients before adding the rice.  This is where I've always gone wrong before. Once that is done, add your rice, soy sauce, lemon juice and onion powder.  Cook for about 5 minutes.  Then toss your rice and eggs together and cook for another 5 minutes until the rice begins to turn golden brown. 

And that's it. Pretty easy and very tasty. Enjoy!

Ascension from the Abyss

Before

It's been a while since I've actually sat down and wrote about my life, and since this week begins a new chapter in my life, I've decided to start back blogging. But blogging is just one of the things that I have decided to start back doing.

When I say new chapter, I don't mean anything has really changed. I'm still trapped in a dead end job in the middle of a town that I absolutely hate. I'm still struggling with my weight and my self-esteem issues. I'm still battling depression and have to force myself out of bed most mornings. But, after about of year of self loathing and self pity, I have decided that I have had enough of this.

So, I have begun the ascension from the abyss.  Back in January, I completed my first full marathon, after completing a half marathon and a 5k the days before, and I've enrolled in my first semester of grad school. I've slowly begun to complete tasks that have set unfinished for months, and I've begun to discover new projects that I want to tackle.

One of those new projects is keeping up with this blog. I've tried various ways to try to keep things interesting for me, but I've just never been able to last longer than a couple of weeks. So, I'm trying something new. Every Monday (a day late already...) and Thursday I'm going to post something. Anything. Just as long as it's something from my life.

I've also started back on my life long attempt at losing weight. For the last week or so, I've done well. I am already down ten pounds. But I want to make it a little more structured. I'm not going to bore you with a daily update on my diet and such, but I just wanted to mention it here and I'll probably throw a post in from time to time to keep you updated. Because I'm eating healthier, I'm going to start cooking more, so maybe you'll see a couple of recipes thrown in. I may even do restaurant reviews too, just to show the healthy alternatives at restaurants. I'm not saying that I'm cutting out the good stuff forever, so you may see some not so healthy restaurant reviews and recipes too.

I also want to start traveling more. Obviously I can't afford extensive travel, but I do want to start visiting local points of interest in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana and beyond.  I don't know how these posts will come out, but I think it would be an interesting venture for sure.

I don't know what I'll post about in the future, this is called "Matt's Ramblings" so you'll see me ramble about all sort of topics, but I think that's a good thing. Before I would not post because I had nothing to say... because I wasn't living life. I was sitting in my room staring at Facebook hoping for something better that would never come. Something better really hasn't found me yet, but I'm not going to sit and wait any longer. I'm seeking it out and enjoying this life. I only get one so I must make the most of it.

Les Miserables

For my first movie night of the new year, I went out to see Les Miserables. I have been wanting to see this film ever since it was announced and had planned on seeing it opening night, but life kept getting in the way and delaying my seeing it.

Even though I was super excited to see this movie, I had some doubts once it actually started.  I knew that this film was based off the West End musical, but I was not expecting there to be no dialogue at all.  At first I really didn't like it.  Mostly because I found Russell Crowe's singing voice some what annoying, and I wasn't quite sure about Hugh Jackman's either.  But once the story got going, and I got used to the operatic style, I really loved it! Other than the opening scene and some strange cinematography in spots, I have absolutely no complaints.

If you like musicals or are looking for something a little different, I would highly recommend seeing Les Mis. But if you do, bring some tissues...