Browsing Category: Lifestyle

Tracksmith Twilight Tank and Long Sleeve Review

Texas weather is difficult. It gets really hot, but whether it gets cold is up in the air. Last year, we had the mildest winter I can remember. This year, I got to experience running in 18º and strong winds. While I’m not particularly experienced with cold weather, the refrain I’ve always heard is that there’s no bad weather, only unsuitable clothing. I took this to heart and prepared well for the cold weather I had no idea was coming. This brings me to the Tracksmith Twilight review.

What makes Twilight different?

Where the Van Cortlandt singlet is a mesh fabric, the Twilight fabric is much more closely knit and weighs much less. It’s pretty soft, too.

Tracksmith calls this fabric their Bravio Blend. It’s Italian, and they say it’s designed for when the temperatures get warm. I’ll get to that in a second, but I will say that the Italians seem to know their stuff when it comes to this. Continue Reading

Comment Lifestyle, Photography, Running

Buying Time, Buying Happiness

buying time house photo

I recently came across an article about how people who “buy time” are happier than people who buy things. Buying time means that people pay to have other people do things for them that they don’t derive any pleasure from, like mowing the lawn and changing the oil in the car. When you buy time like that, you free yourself up to do other things with your life that do make you happy, whether it’s just spending time with your family or pursuing your hobbies.

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Comment Dallas, Lifestyle

Disney World!

Disney World Magic Kingdom Christmas Night 2

There’s nowhere in the world more magical than Disney World. Doubly so when it’s decorated for Christmas. My mom’s side of the family had a trip planned for ages for this week, but I wasn’t able to take the time off work, and I was pretty bummed to miss it. My mom planted a little seedling in Ben’s brain shortly before she left on the trip and he encouraged me to price out a flight and see how bad it’d be to go on such short notice.

Disney Emporium Magic Kingdom

Luckily, it was cheap. So last Friday, I booked it to DFW after work and was shortly on my way to Disney World! Continue reading →

Comment Lifestyle, Photography

My Long Distance Marriage

Why the Distance?

My husband primarily lives and works in Oklahoma, while I’m permanently here in Dallas. We see each other for a day a few times a month, and then usually for four to six days every fifth week. It’s definitely not what I imagined would happen when I was married before I met Ben, and it’s not going to stay this way forever. But a long distance marriage is what we’re doing now, and for the foreseeable future.

None of this is a complaint – what with all of the layoffs in the oilfield, we are both thrilled and thankful that Ben still has his job. In an economy when most of the people my age are still ten years from buying a home, we’re able to save up a down payment or a safety net if one of us loses our jobs. But there also isn’t a single minute out of any day that I don’t wish he had a normal job in Dallas.

Unlike many oilfield positions, Ben doesn’t have a schedule. There’s no 14 days on, 14 days off for us. That makes it very hard to plan, and it made the ability to work remotely when necessary a priority when I was searching for a job. When he has those rare days at home, I don’t want to lose out on eight precious hours at work. Even though we’re just sitting on the couch together – me working and him playing a video game – just being in the same room as the other is incredibly important.

Every day, I want him home because he’s my husband and I love him. And I know he wants to be home. And that’s how we keep it together.

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Comment Lifestyle

Rio and the State of the Olympics

It seems like there are news articles about how Rio isn’t ready to host the Olympics coming out weekly. There are bodies washing up on the beaches to be used for volleyball and chlorine-resistant parasites in the pools and severe pollution in the rowing waters in addition to the Zika virus we’ve been hearing about since January. There are also the long-standing issues of the generally unsafe and murder-prone nature of the city and rampant, largely-unchecked corruption.

The IOC should be ashamed of themselves.

Rio should not be hosting the Olympics, and while I don’t mean to exempt them from blame for this, the buck ultimately stops at the IOC. Sure, it was short-sighted and self-serving for Rio to bid to host the Games, but I can understand the desire to bring more international spotlight to your country, especially after infrastructure investments had been made for the 2014 World Cup. But the IOC made a mistake in picking Rio.

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Comment Lifestyle, Running

Baking Croissants

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After making four batches of bagels last weekend, I decided I’d try croissants this weekend. I ended up not getting around to the dough in time, and then making true croissants were going to be far more involved than I was anticipating, so instead of adding in the butter layer and brushing it with egg and butter, I just made the dough into a croissant-like shape and put them in the oven.

They still turned out really well, and are delicious if you stick them in the microwave for a few seconds and put butter on them. They’re not as flaky as traditional croissants by any means. If I had to compare them, I’d probably say they remind me most of the bread used for the sausage kolaches. This turned out to be a happy little accident.

Comment Lifestyle, Photography

rule40 and the State of the Olympics

If you’ve been following track and field athletes on social media lately, you’ve probably seen some of them tweeting or instagramming some bright yellow images for an organization called rule40. Some athletes are sticking post-it notes on their heads or hands, and some are wearing t-shirts emblazdoned with a yellow square that say “running shirt” on them.

This movement was born of the efforts of people like Nick Symmonds, the 800m specialist who just two months ago auctioned off advertising space on his shoulder and recently announced on twitter that he would have to scratch the Olympic trials this month. Essentially, it boils down to the fact that running professionally is difficult for all but the most top-tier runners in the more popular events because there is so little money to be made in track and field. Marathoners tend to do better and have access to larger prize pots, but the getting’s not so good for athletes that tend to compete primarily on the oval.

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2 Comments Lifestyle, Running

Frozen berries

I’ve loved frozen grapes and blueberries since the first time I tried them. I was looking forward to relaxing on my rest day on my back porch with a bowl of berries and a good book. So of course, fifteen minutes after I get home, the rain starts pouring down (rather violently, I might add; the dog is scared for his life). Whatever. I’m eating my berries anyway.

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Comment Lifestyle, Photography