Spackling and Taper Time!

Hello there!  Meet my new best friend ...

I have been a spackling fool today.  I picked up this tube at Hope Depot this morning for no other reason than the fact that it goes onto the wall pink - but IT IS AWESOME.  Seriously.  You should use this for all of your spackling needs.

(And for those of you who don't love the color pink as much as I do - it also comes in blue.)

Kari and I got a ridiculously amount of packing/de-cluttering/organizing/spackling done today.  The boxes definitely don't fit neatly in a corner anymore!  There are so many of them.  But it's a good thing.  I am so grateful Kari came down this weekend (did I mention her sole purpose was to help me pack?!).  I have awesome friends.

After a few hours of non-stop packing we headed out for a run/walk to enjoy the beautiful day.  We decided to run to Emory and back, but run three miles and walk the rest.  We ran 3.0 miles, then walked for 2.56 miles.  Check out our running splits!

     Mile 1 - 9:40 
     Mile 2 - 9:37
     Mile 3 - 10:05

The last 0.25 mile was a hill that absolutely killed us, so I'm shocked we kept the pace we did!  I love running with people - it pushes my pace in a good way.

We are LESS THAN TWO WEEKS from the Thanksgiving Half Marathon, so I am officially in taper mode.  Short runs ONLY.  I was hoping for one final long run before the race, but it just didn't happen.  We are moving, I'm working 40 hour weeks, Bruce is working 50 hour weeks, I'm scrambling on some ordination stuff and it's getting dark too early for me to run after work.  I'm happy I was able to train up to 10 miles and I'm confident I can dig and find the other 3.1!

We dug into our college days (and my recipe archives) and made her mom's delicious Cheddar Chowder for dinner.

This was, by far, the best batch we've ever made.  We let the cheese sauce simmer a little bit longer than usual and I threw in some sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  Oh myyyy.

Do yourself a favor and try this recipe sometime this winter.  You won't be disappointed (vegetarians, feel free to substitute the ham for kidney or pinto beans!).

Late night snack.

Starbucks Nonfat Peppermint Mocha.  Need I say more?

I think we've hit the proverbial packing wall, but maybe we'll get a second wind and pack a few more boxes before the night is over.  If not, there's always tomorrow!

Goodnight friends.