Prosciutto-wrapped Pesto and Pine Nut Tilapia with Mushroom Risotto

Mexican Chicken Tortilla soup as appetizer and PB cookies and Pictionary for dessert (not pictured)

Homeostasis

I drank too much coffee today and then I went and drank an excessive amount of diet Pepsi post-dinnertime (so much so that I am too embarrassed to specify the exact amount in this pseudo-public domain). So now, it is 23:15 and it is past my bed-time and I cannot sleep :( I was lying in bed, thinking obsessively about running (as usual), and why I am so addicted. I've realized it's because running completely structures my life. It's not just something I do to feel good about myself physically... it forces me to be healthy, efficient, and focused.

When I am running, I have this great balance of good energy in (carbs and veggies and fruits, restful sleeping) and good energy out (workouts that are on the whole rewarding, good energy level, organization and focus during the day so I can run in the afternoon, great sleep at night). When I stop, everything goes down the tubes. I get eat like crap and get fat, I sleep horribly, I can't concentrate and waste my free time, and I'm tired and irritable all day.

::sigh::

The only good thing about not running is that I don't get night sweats!


Anyways, enough crying about my current knee injury... Despite having to bike all weekend, the rest of it was pretty good. I was off because I'm on inpatient Peds, so Friday night, I hung out at home with Raghu - we made my interpretation of his turkey burger recipe :) Saturday some friends and I made dinner (pictures to come!) - mexican chicken soup, proscuitto wrapped pesto tilapia with pomegranate seeds, mushroom risotto, peanut butter cookies, and wine, followed by a rousing, post-dinner late-night game of pictionary. Sunday, I studied and bought Bananagrams (most amazing game ever), and went to see Milk. It was a great movie - Sean Penn was so convincing! I wonder if had it come out before the election, would Prop 8 have passed?

Eep! time to go to bed. Night night~

Run update: Have run 1.5 then 3 miles in the past week, my comeback from a 2 month break! I'm using this terrible brace my orthopedist gave me that has these velcro straps designed to keep my patella from moving too lateral, but the straps are so rough on the edges, it ends up cutting my other knee when they sometimes rub together... I am still struggling with the knee pain... He said try to run for 6 weeks and if it doesn't work, I'll get you a referral for PT, but I think I need to do that now.

Bike update: The bike is amazing. It doesn't particularly do it for me as a way to feel good about myself, and I can never really feel like I get in the zone like I do when I run, but this is by far the best bike I've ever had! I still need to make some adjustments and buy some parts to make it fit me better, but for now it's working out well. As part of my denial that I am not in fact really that injured and that I will get back running as usual say, TOMORROW, I have not really invested that much into bike-specific clothing. I've got my bike shorts and my cleats.... that's about it. So 1 pair of bike shorts to wear EVERY DAY. GROSS.

Cooking extravaganza tonight! On the menu:

Herbed mushroom custard
Bim bim bap? or Asparagus and triple cream pizza... or cauliflower and pancetta pizza... tbd
Some thing that Vinh will make with brussel sprouts in an effort to convince me that I should like brussel sprouts
Walnut cream cheese sandwich cookies!

Hopefully I can find my camera in time to wow you.

Amanda's visit and home-made goat cheese and ricotta and chive and mushroom ravioli and goat cheese potato salad New York Times style

Walking about at the Fell's Point Festival




Later that night!




First time making pasta!
Making up the dough:




Action shot!




Stuffing:




Dough is getting firmer! Chives added to cheese filling:




Ball of fresh pasta!




Stuffing all done: mushrooms added!




Goat cheese warm potato salad with mustard seeds:




Rolling out the pasta:




Ravioli and experimental tortellini awaiting cooking:




Buttermilk sauce with bits of tomato and ham:




Ta-da!

I'm sorry for abandoning you, blog.

"im secretly very jealous of your facebook relationship"

It's true, I am in high demand. Which is why I have accidentally abandoned my blog for almost a month. Well, not actively abandoned, more like, passively abandoned. In the interim, I've sworn off running for about a month because of my knee injury, and subsequently gained 5 lbs. I have since started a diet, in which, although I have not lost any weight yet, I have curbed the exponential trajectory my accumulation of fat was following.

Anyobsessionwithweight, Amanda came to visit, which was a smashing success! We ate lots of good food and drank mojitos! I had a month-long working "vacation", but mostly I dealt with EMIG stuff and volunteered at the clinic place where I test people for HIV. GET TESTED!

To be honest, nothing interesting has happened in the past month, so don't worry, no one has missed anything.

Look out for food pictures coming soon though :) mmmmm

Starting a new project

It's not complete and only a very rough sketch of what the final product will look like, but here is the preliminary mockup of the mural I will be painting. The plan is to make it look more like hair, or water; something much more detailed and intricate, but to be honest, how much detail can you create with blue painter's tape. Also, the roll is about to run out, so once it's used up, I'll start painting. The plan is to paint in black only.









I was going to apologize for the quality of the photos, but then I realized I wasn't sorry.

Amanda's coming on Saturday! That is in Two Days.

Aw man, forgot to take pictures...

of my deeelicious tomato-egg dinner! Aw man.... I haven't been good about the pictures lately. BUT, I will be embarking on several projects in the upcoming weeks:

1. Experimenting with cooking with my rice-cooker! (Bimbimbap, anyone?)
2. Sam bui gai
3. Another painting, subject to be determined
4. Mural for the apartment, subject determined, but need to muster guts to start drawing on my walls

Oh yeah,

and I ran 10 miles today at the gym, possibly one of the most boring things I have ever done. I was limited only by my concern that if I continued to run, I would fall asleep and be catapulted off the back of the treadmill, perhaps injuring myself and my pride even more than they have been in recent months.

I've also figured out that if I run with my left foot slightly angled out, my knee doesn't seem to bother me all that much! Huzzah NSAIDS, ice, relative rest, and running like a pigeon!

Here is an email from Melvin the orthopedic surgeon, whom I love/hate:

"[he spelled my name wrong, by the way],

You have got to stop running completely and let this heal. Otherwise, you are going to end up with a rod in your tibia.
Stay on the Naprosyn, ice and REST!!!!!"

I don't really understand why I will end up with a rod in my tibia, but whatever. I was at the gym today and they have this little bookshelf in the hall with outdated books on it on sports medicine and working out etc. I opened up this sports medicine book from 1987 (I was 4!), directly to the IT band-related knee pain page completely by random! (It's times like these that I think perhaps there is a God and I am completely wrong about this whole atheism thing.) Anyway, this section of the book wasn't all that helpful to me because there wasn't any quick fix for knee pain described, but one statement caught my eye, which I thought really hit home. I considered pocketing the book, highlighting the paragraph, and mailing it to Melvin. What it said was essentially: "In terms of treatment, rest, ice, stretching, and anti-inflammatories generally work for most IT band-related knee pain, HOWEVER, NO SERIOUS RUNNER IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD EVVVEERRR AGREE TO NOT RUNNING, so as an orthopedic surgeon, your best best is really just suggesting a mileage cut, because realistically, if you told your serious runner to stop running, they are not going to follow your advice. So don't even pretend."

Don't get me wrong, I love this guy, but seriously? Stop running? THAT'S the advice you're going to give me?!

completely unrelated

Hype, baby!







plus







is what i call retail therapy

No, there isn't

To answer that previously rhetorical question of, "Is there anything else?", I can now with confidence declare that, No, actually, there is nothing else.

4 weeks without running regularly has turned me into a sad, lonely, empty, moody, and irritable individual. And I'm getting fat, which only compounds my problems. We always joke about how running is an addiction - those natural opiods, endorphins, are potent drugs - and I now truly believe it. After going through running withdrawal, I think I could probably do heroin, get addicted, and then stop cold turkey, no problem. It cannot be worse than running withdrawal.

Hipster overload

I am sitting in this lovely cafe with free internet and Belgian waffles and every type of tea imaginable except for the one I actually want (Gen Mai), and I am feeling like I am experiencing an acute case of hipster toxicity. My waitress is wearing a jean miniskirt with tights. Also, there is a baby shower going on in the back room. There are high ceilings with exposed duct work and bamboo room dividers and these cool big overhead chandeliers. This place is SO TRENDY with loud instrumental/techno/chillout/D&B/lounge music and I kind of feel like this is too much posing for me to sustain for the next several hours that I plan to camp out here. I don't know if I will make it. I am drinking a mimosa, which will hopefully get me drunk enough to block out all this damn music yet not affect me so much that it becomes apparent in my residency application that I worked on it while intoxicated.

In other news Amanda is coming to visiiit. She's actually coming with her boyfriend and his mom to see her bf's sister play at the conservatory here, but whatever I take what I can get. The concert is Friday night, so itinerary includes:

Sat AM: run 1st, then brunch with BELLINIS and MIMOSAS. I am on a 4 wk long vacation after all.
Sat PM: drinks! I will take her to either a dirty frat-person-type bar/club with loud good music and plenty of people to make fun of or to a snooty trendy secret spot with no dancing and plenty of bright lighting, but tasty beverages.
I wonder if I subsist on alcoholic beverages only the entire day Saturday.

Going home later that week. Must buy plane tickets. Already irritated by the thought of the interrogation that comes with going home and seeing my parents.

William will be in Boston when I am home! I think I will have him stay with us.

start over...

Ok, NOW it's done. But still depressed...

X_x

Mood: depressed

Feeling real bad about busted knee from Saturday's failed 20miler. ::sigh:: I'm getting twinges when I walk around, esp if I'm making any twisting motions.

At least I've got the bike, right? Shoes came in, which were sweet, but a tad too small, so waiting on the exchange. Stem should be here soon. Got the cleats and the shorts! Made friends with the bicycle mechanics today at Hudson Trail Outfitters in Towson <3!

Other than that, not much good news to report. Apps coming along slowly. Personal statement slowly morphing into something I can be proud of. I need an EM letter!!! Really just feeling down as usual.

::sigh::


I yanked my toenail off. It was hanging by a thread:




Here are Matteo's beautiful t-shirts he made of my bird paintings. The orange and green are my favorite, they look like bird explosions. I was wearing the orange one and asked me what band my shirt was from and I was like, MY BAND BITCHES!!! Just kidding, I was like, oh, it's not a band, it's a shirt my friend made.










And finally, because I always get real creative when work I need to do piles up, this is what I did today instead of working on my application. Inspired by an Absolut ad:

Almost?



That's better:




Back to work for real now... Night all (as in the 3 ppl who read this... though I kind of like it that way)

HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

1. Had an awful day Friday. A certain person went to a baseball game and I, sick of trying to find a good roadbike/SS for the past 6 months and sick of talking about it, decide to go take out a bunch of money from the ATM and drive almost to Pennsylvania to buy this bicycle I found on Craigslist. As I'm parallel parking on a ONE LANE ONE WAY STREET near the ATM, this new white Merc drives by and scrapes itself across the front corner of my car. The driver, angry that I "hit him", jumps out of the car and then we have to do the whole insurance information etc shit. Ugh. One more thing to deal with. Traumatized, and now late, I start driving up to this bike guy's house. It's 9pm now and I'm still about 20 min away and now I'm lost. Trying to turn around in this dark parking lot, I jump the curb and bend my wheel and flat my tire. UGHHHH. I realize I don't have a flashlight so I can't change my tire myself, I end up calling AAA, which is kind of pathetic. So I hobble home on my poor gimpy car and fortunately make it safely. As I'm sitting at my desk, making a list of things to do, a text box shows up on my computer screen that tells me "Irreparable damage to the battery has been detected. Replace the battery with a new one." Awesome. So now, I have a non-functioning 1.5 yr old battery, NOT, as Lenovo tells me, covered by warranty, and NOT covered in their failing battery replacement program. How something 1.5 yrs old that spontaneously fails is NOT covered by warranty escapes me. Also, I find out a new steelie costs about 80 bucks, and the trade-in value of my car is 172. Just think about that for a second. I drink by myself and go to sleep.

2. Saturday, I get some of my crap done, then go to someone's house for an incredible swordfish (no pictures gahhh), skinny green beans, and veggie couscous dinner. I drink too much wine and on Sunday,

3. wake up with that persistent sore throat I have been fighting for the past week that I think I got from my upper level, and feeling kind of dry from drinking the night before. Em had moved apartments on Saturday and is sore from that, so unfortunately, Sunday's "20 mile run" is a painful, painful 10 miler. Then I eat some cheesecake. Since we're on the topic of running:

gross!



4. Thank god Monday is "Registration day" and does not actually require me to start my clerkship. Ron drives me to the Apple store to exchange my Amp+ that has died (yay!) and we eat Chinese food at the mall (sin!). Do some more school stuff. A friend drives me to Arundel Mills to see the bike I tried to see on Friday (the owner has graciously offered to meet me there since he works in the area, so that I don't have to relive a traumatic drive to his house again). I'm a 79cm inseam and thought a 52-53cm would be a good size, but the bike he brought was a 54cm. Fortunately, it seemed small for a 54cm, and more importantly, I think I have fallen in love.

HELLO SEXY







hello, carbon fiber!



hello, Cannondale CAAD3 frame!





water bottle holders! painted to match!



and just in case your short term memory is so poor that you've already forgotten (I know some of you have this problem)



We bring the thing to Nathan's, and he helps fiddle around with the handlebars, which are a bit wide, but then we realize we don't have the right brackets to fit on a smaller one he has lying around. Things get put back together, but the bike gets its yellow handlebar tape taken off and replaced with nice new white tape to match the saddle and the pedals. The frame is maroon, which matches the wheels and the painted-to-match water bottle holders. Sharp! Seat height gets adjusted, handlebar angle gets leveled, and I get a crash course in clipping in and out. All I need now is:

-handlebar bracket thing which I've already kind of forgotten the name of
-cleats
-shorts

And did I mention this bike was an excellent deal?! It's like I bought the frame, a seat, and one pedal, and miraculously all the other parts just showed up. It's like I GOT AN AMAZING DEAL. And also I got to buy it from a really nice person, which is always a really pleasant experience. Oh, I guess I'm kind of paying a lot more when you factor in the car fiasco.... Oh well.

What's more is that when I get home, a certain person has dinner in the making. I make a salad with mushrooms, strawberries, dried cranberries, Parmesan cheese, and heirloom tomatoes. The main course turns out to be delicious home-made-original-recipe grilled salmon with lemon/vinegar/mustard seed/black pepper marinade. Spectacular!





This week is starting out well :) I'm content.

GOING ON A DIET

IT'S TIME TO LOSE THE THREE POUNDS I GAINED LAST WEEK BY EATING LIKE I'M RUNNING 50 MILES A WEEK WHEN I'M REALLY ONLY RUNNING ABOUT 30. THEY SAY THAT ONE POUND IS EQUAL TO ABOUT 3000 KCAL. THAT MEANS, LAST WEEK, I ATE 9000 KCALS MORE THAN I NEEDED TO. THAT IS LIKE EATING MORE THAN 3 TRAYS OF OREOS. DAMN.

Adventures of the orange soccer shirt that was STOLEN from me! slash photo dump

b bistro:



fried oysters on greens with a something aoli



medium rare (not mine, obviously)



caesar salad with my favorite croutons and a goose-sized piece of steak (rare, baby! bring it, prions!)




trip down to VA for pizza and a milkshake (forgot to take pictures :( ):




clementine in balto, what a find!:

lime and basil iced tea thing



crabby soup



coho salmon with crab and rice and veggies



XXL drop biscuits with crab... This is what I want to eat every day when I go to Heaven



escargot and shiitake moushrooms with toast points! (mine, obviously)



sad I am too full to keep on eating




random artsy bonus upload:




ra (my shrimp tempura udon was too blurry even by my low standards to post...):




my shrimp tuna clam garlic tomato pasta sauce on spaghetti: