I splurged and bought the Martha Stewart Holiday cookie book. SO so worth it. Made the Gluten-free, Dairy-free Chocolate Pecan cookies this weekend (mostly because they were the easiest with ingredients I had on hand). Like meringues, all light and delicate, but super chocolate-y. Stocked up on cookie tins, too, so I'm hoping to get treats out this year.

Making Butternut Squash and White Bean soup for dinner tonight. Getting back into cooking real dinners again. Just need to make the effort to plan ahead and then its nice knowing I've already got something planned for when I get home rather than tossing together something completely ad hoc each night. It is dark now at 5:00 p.m. I forgot this about Fall/Winter.

Countdown: 2 weeks to race day

Hmmm.. so insanely busy lately, entire weeks go by and I marvel that it is already well into November. I'm working like a madwoman, currently in the middle of a 13-day stretch. Frankly, a little concerned I'm going to make myself sick. Not nearly enough rest, especially on top of training for the half-marathon. It is in exactly 2 weeks. I ran 9.9 miles yesterday morning and plan on getting to 11 before the race. Apparently adrenalin will help propel me the extra 2 miles I'll have never run before. Let's hope so. It's been very satisfying though, I've never run more than 8 miles in my life and I've been adding on more and feeling fine. Makes me wonder what my old cross-country times might have been had I been this determined back then. Ah well. Better late than never. I also loaded up on cold-weather running goodies yesterday. Got my beanie, gloves, some gel electrolyte thingies to eat while running. Apparently they help to get you past the energy slump. I'm just getting psyched as the race gets closer and I'm more confident that I'll actually be able to do it. I want to finish and run the entire thing, first, but also try to beat 2:10. Definitely think it is within reach.

Better be off to ice some leg soreness and get ready for the desk job in the morning....