Old shoes

Husband and I got new shoes tonight... I was feeling kind of guilty (at least in my case; Husband's shoes were a sodden mess) but a quick peek at the bottoms made me feel justified, if not horrified that I'd still been running on them.

Old vs. new
























Note the wear, especially at the tops and bottoms. They haven't come out with a new version of 2130s yet so I ended up getting exactly the same shoe.

And Husband, old vs. new:
























Although these shoes are useless for distance running, they have plenty of life left, and with a good washing (and de-stinking) look pretty decent, so I'll pass them on to a local program that gives them to kids who need gym shoes.

Eating local can eat it

I give up. It's been only two and a half weeks, but I yield.

When my friend AP first mentioned trying to eat locally (within 100 miles of where she lived), I thought she was crazy. But then I read all those books and it seemed like a fun adventure! so we signed up (mentally, at least) for the Eat Local Challenge, choosing the forgiving goal of eating local for every 4 out of 5 foods for 1 month.

And it was fun! Our concept of what we could eat locally exploded. We hit multiple farmer's markets, ate fabulous local produce, and we were amazed by the number of regular meals we could adapt without much trouble. We discovered locally processed and/or grown pasta and flours, plums and berries and the season's first apples, split peas and dried beans... even as I write this it sounds so easy... I mean, you've got honey and maple syrup and all the wheat and dairy in the world!

But lo, it is not so easy. Ultimately we were brought down by:
1. Time. Although late summer is a great time, produce-wise, to eat local, it is also a terrible time, schedule-wise. Our weeknights are nearly full, so we'd grocery shop on our lunch hour and then come home at 8:30 and start cooking... and cleaning, washing up sinkfuls of pots and pans.

2. Feeling like we were cheating all the time. My co-op is generous with the "local" label, affixing it to nearly anything in the tri-state area... and some products that are merely locally owned... which is good, but does that count? We made an exception for dining out, which sounded reasonable until it's a coffee here and brunch there and then dinner here, and is that what eating local really looks like? And what about beverages? Is farmer-to-farmer, locally roasted coffee OK? Even milk (and other dairy products) had me wondering where the cows really lived.

When a few unusually stressful weeks at work left me tossing and turning at night and running around panic busy during the day, I realized that now is maybe not a great time to take on a task like this.

So we gave up, and even though we're not eating all that much less locally, I feel so much better not having to think about food all the time. Eating local is something we'll continue to aspire to and value, but for now, it will have to be in moderation.

Insider gu

According to a reliable source, police have been frequenting local running stores to stock up on gu to use while working protest detail at the RNC.

Monthly book post: August

Boy do I have some good books for your this month!

I was told there'd be cake by Sloane Crosley. I kept not wanting to read this book because it's a series of essays, but whenever I picked it up I laughed out loud and couldn't put it down. Crosley is a brilliant essayist, equal to the hard hitters of the genre and her stories of single life in NYC (which bear no similarly to Sex and the City) have earned the attention of HBO, which bought it for a new series.

Moose: Tales from Fat Camp by Stephanie Klein. If you always wanted to know what those fat camps advertised in the back of Seventeen magazine were like, Klein has the answer. My favorite part was last third of the book, when Klein talks about what life is like post-fat camp, how she was able to shed the pounds but not the identity of being a fat camp champ.

Plenty: One man, one woman, and one raucous year of eating locally by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. If you're interested in eating locally, I found this book to be a more practical how-to than Barbara Kingsolver's, even though neither live in the Midwest and therefore address what it's like to eat locally here. Smith and MacKinnon are extremely hardcore about it; you'll never take wheat for granted again!

Other reads:
Certain girls by Jennifer Weiner. I was loving this book until the last few chapters.
Sleeping Arrangements by Madeline Wickham
The geography of bliss : one grump's search for the happiest places in the world by Eric Weiner
The spring cleaning murders by Dorothy Cannell. English murder mysteries help pass time on planes and ferries.