Happy Tuesday Blends! (Surely everyone is familiar with the blends = blog friends by now, right? ;)) I’m up at et ‘em this morning and trying to stretch out my legs. Do you know what I forgot to mention yesterday?

It’s 5k Week!!!

Exciting, right?? For me, yes, yes it is.

It’s also a little nerve-wrecking because I haven’t been very dutiful about my runs.  First, I was off 10 days for vacation, then I returned sick and wasn’t able to run for another week.  Eeks.  Luckily I hopped back on the running bandwagon, but have only run twice since then.

Due to this reason, I was determined to run yesterday… no matter how threatening the skies looked.

I laced up, mapped out 3.4 miles on mapmyrun.com and got to it.  At first, the cloudy skies were calming and it felt great!  About a third of the way in, it started to sprinkle… and by the time we were on the other side of the neighborhood (about half way through), the skies opened up and starting dumping buckets of water!

C’est la vie…

There was nothing to do at that point except run home.  I ended up running only 3 miles, instead of my intended 3.4, but I ran faster and harder than I ever have before.  I wish I would have kept track of time, but I didn’t.  However, I did feel incredibly proud.  I imagined the cars passing me by thinking “that girl is so hard core” … sure, they were probably just thinking “what a nut job” but I liked to imagine the former 🙂

of course the rain stops by the time I get to my camera!

nothing is quite as refreshing as rain water… fresh from the drain 😉

I celebrated my awesome run by carving my pumpkin.  What? That isn’t how you celebrate?

I actually was really feeling some pumpkin seeds… and there is only one place to get those.. inside this guy:

Look how thick he was!  After scraping out all the delicious guts, I decided against carving, and instead opted to go for the glow effect!

After satisfying my artistic side, it was time for seeds!

“they” say to let seeds dry completely, then toss them in oil.  I say to pat them dry, then let the wet seeds stick to the seasoning with out oil.

A sprinkle of salt, pepper and cayenne – for a kick!

Spread them out a cookie sheet, bake 10 minutes at 275 degrees, stir around, then bake another 10 minutes or so.

and Wah-Lah!

I’ve seen all sorts of pumpkin muffins & breads… but am I the only one that loves some good ‘ol fashion SEEDS??

🙂