Couch to 5K: Day 22

Day 22! It's hard to believe! Today was pretty uneventful. I went to the track and ran for 28 minutes. The highlight of the workout was that I ran my fastest mile so far--11 minutes and thirty seconds. Also, it was exciting because a flock of seagulls came and sort of attacked/landed on the bleachers by the track. The water fowl are really adding an element of danger to my jogs that makes them more fun. Living on the edge!

-Kristin

Had the Commander of the Army Fowl been with you, there'd be no reason to fear.

- Megan Leigh

Read More: When A Crocodile Eats the Sun

I just finished When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin. Kristin originally picked out this book from the library. After her good review I decided to give it a try. I was positive that she already wrote her review on the blog, but can't find it! Well, anyway I was not nearly as impressed.

It's another white African memoir. Boy grows up a privileged white, thinking because he was born in Zimbabwe he is a true African. He never lacks for food, he is given an education and sent to study abroad, he lounges by a pool, he has a maid, a gardener, a nanny... He may have been born in Africa but he most definitely has no idea how it feels to live like the majority of his countrymen. Then Mugabe comes along and sends the country to hell, demonizing the white people as he does it. His family's status drops drastically and they are in constant danger. For the first time he gets to feel what it is like to be a true Zimbabwean, but he doesn't seem to notice that hey, I'm still living a better life than everyone else! They may have a hard time finding food and gas, but they DO still have food and a car they are able to replace twice after being stolen. He doesn't worry much about the idea that if he feels this bad off, the rest of Zimbabwe is still fairing a whole hell of a lot worse.

But aside from that I didn't think the writing was at all good. Boring. Somehow passionless when it's obvious he wrote this memoir because it's something he feels very passionate about! Dry. He tried to force himself to throw in some humor here and there, but it just fell flat. I don't believe I'm better off for reading this book as I've read numerous memoirs in the same vein and the writing wasn't enjoyable enough to make me forget it.

- Megan Leigh

Wow! Megan is really giving it to poor Peter Godwin here. I really disagree with her review. I thought it was very well-written (unlike a lot of memoirs), and just because he did have a rather privileged childhood doesn't mean his experience isn't worth sharing. If people with privileged childhoods weren't allowed to write memoirs, there would be like two or three books in the whole genre! And throughout the book, I think Godwin made the point that as devastating as Mugabe's policies were for white farmers, they affect the historically poor and powerless the most. Megan is just a strident Marxist who is unable to appreciate fine literature.

Plus, I think this is a story that both Meg and I will be able to relate to very soon. Your parents are growing old in a violent, anarchic place, far from where you live, so that you are powerless to help them... They refuse to move, for reasons you can't comprehend... doesn't it all sound familiar?! Yes, I am talking about Webster Groves.

-Kristin

Recipe in Progress: Chocolate Cake

My first two-layered cake! I got the recipe for a simple chocolate buttercake from The Cake Bible. I also tried a simple chocolate "neoclassic" buttercream frosting from the same book. Well, I thought the cake turned out really well! It was kind of crumbly, but very chocolatey and rich, and not TOO sweet. The icing was different than what I expected though. I thought it would whip up and be very light and fluffy. That's buttercream, right? But instead it was very thin. It TASTED great--again, really rich and chocolatey, but not too sweet--but it looked like a thin, shiny ganache. So I'm not sure what happened there! It tasted very nice with strawberries. It was quite a production to make this thing, though! Definitely for special occasions only.

Well, it's definitely a start. My big goal is to be able to make a stunning cake by Elliot's birthday. I wouldn't be ashamed to serve this! But I think I can do even better. This seemed more like a grown-up cake.

I don't think this picture does it justice. I am putting it up anyway, because a bare blog is boring. I need to learn how to take better pictures!

-Kristin

Good Food: French Toast

What to do with the dumb organic bread that you just bought from the store, even though it cost way too much money, only to find that it was stale once you tried to make yourself a sandwich? French Toast!

This time I tried a recipe from the Best Recipe Cookbook. I did not have especially high hopes for this recipe, because nothing from this cookbook tends to turn out well for me. But it was delicious! Just right. Highly recommended! I like it better than Mark Bittman's. Also better than my own. For years I had been using a recipe I had in my head that involved about one egg per piece of bread and a little milk and vanilla. That made a very hearty, eggy french toast. This french toast is lighter and probably tastier, more like what you'd find in a restaurant.

-Kristin

Time With Friends: New Jersey

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I went to New Jersey this weekend to spend time with my best friends from Eckerd.  Michelle came down from Maine. Josh came over from Kentucky. And we all stayed at Cynthia's house in New Jersey. It was so nice to see everyone again and in one place!

FRIDAY 
We played Scattergories and watched the Cardinals beat the Phillies.

SATURDAY
First we got into a car accident when a big ol' truck couldn't see us over his big ol' truck. That put a bit of a damper on our fun and has convinced me even more that big cars such be ousted. 

After getting a police report we headed over to a haunted village. We paid our respects at a tiny graveyard where most of the people had died November 22, 1776. We assumed it was in a revolutionary war battle. And there was one very close by November 16th according to a Google search. No hands reached from the ground to grip at my ankles, so I doubt there were really bodies there. We continued on down a trail and found 'surprise lake', the name leading you to believe it's a hidden beauty. Then you see it and Surprise! It's just a scummy old lake! Next we went in search of a horse stable, but got lost. We tried to track the horse hoof prints but our tracking skills were poor to extremely poor. Luckily on our way back to civilization some horse ladies came trotting at us so we got to see them after all. I sure would like a horse! Next we found our way to a pasture or playground area where we picnicked. A bee fell in love with Michelle and I think she fell a little in love with it. Finally back to the car. We never did see the haunted village. I must say that I'm a bit dubious that it really exists.

That night we had blackened grouper (that Cynthia had to order special for us!) and yellow squash and asparagus from the grill and sipped on fancy wine spritzers with strawberries. Yum yum! We played Cranium - A first for me and very fun, I must say! It's all sorts of games rolled into one: Pictionary, Charades, Trivia and MORE. (So for my birthday Apples to Apples and Cranium are on the list!) Then a episode of Project Runway and to bed I went.

SUNDAY 
Sunday was just beautiful out. We laid around the house and watched Free Willy (this time I didn't cry) and some Arrested Developments. Then we went to a park and laid under a tree and read and napped and Michelle tried to learn to knit. We went across the street and got ice cream then raced home to catch the train.

Couch to 5K: Day 21

Whew! Finally back on schedule! Not only did I complete the 25 minute run, but I ran a little faster than I ever have before! 12 minutes and 30 seconds per mile. Not bad.

There is more exciting new than this, though. As I was lacing up my shoes to go jog, Elliot declared that today was the day. You may remember that weeks earlier I had tried to entice Elliot into joining me in the track by offering to buy him a game for his DS if he could run a mile, no stopping or walking. Well, he decide that it was time to take me up on the offer. On the way to the track, I kept up a steady stream of what I hoped was encouraging, but sobering, advice. "It's so great that you want to run too, Elliot! But don't feel bad if you can't run a mile your first time. You probably need to build up to it." He nodded politely. Then we got to the track, and he proceeded to run a mile. He did it chattering the whole way too. I don't think he was winded at all. When we got to the last lap, he said now was the time to really run, and he took off like a rocket, leaving me far behind.

Then we came home and picked out his new Pokemon video game (the third one) from Amazon. This is a post-run victory picture of him.

-Kristin

One New Thing: MWAPE Peer Awards

Poppy's wonderful teacher, Mbumwae, also happens to be an accomplished dancer, and she told us that she would be dancing at a Zambian event. We were excited to finally get to see her dance! So this Saturday, we lobbed off the kids on a generous friend, and spent the evening at the MWAPE Peer Awards, an event where awards are given to Zambians and members of the Zambian diaspora for doing amazing things.


It was a lovely (and for us, fancy!) night of dinner, dancing, and meeting many new people. It was a lot of fun to see Mbumwae and everybody else dancing and having so much fun. And it was very inspiring to hear about all the things that the awardees had accomplished--they included everybody from filmmakers and lawyers to economists. Mbumwae also has a charitable foundation that aims to improve women's lives, and it had a table at the event. If you would like to check it out, you can look at the website here.

Ben was the photographer for this event and yours truly was the videographer, so we got a lot of photos. Here are a few!

-Kristin