Updates - round one

So, what has been going on with me?

• I have a project at the house going on. All of the cabinets (and much of the trim) in our house is brown wood. The look is very rustic, and while it looked really nice with the former owner's bachelor/texas ranch/rustic furniture and decor, it looks kind of weird with our stuff. I'm not really a brown kind of girl. So...I'm painting some of the cabinets a creamy white. We're getting new carpet soon (brown carpet, funny enough), and I'm trying to get all of the cabinets that are over carpet sanded and painted before the carpet is installed. So far, I'm almost done with the upstairs bathroom and have started sanding the hall linen closet. After that, I have the two vanities in our master. Now that I have the experience of doing the bathroom, I understand how to make the process go faster and easier....and I'm trying to do it with as little help from Chad as possible. Go me!
  
• I got my cruiser bike and have been enjoying rides around our neighborhood. Some days I will ride while Chad runs. Sometimes he will ride with me. We tackled hills the other day and it was awesome! The back of our neighborhood is the Great Hills neighborhood and if you know streets like Sans Souci and Fire Oak (up to Yaupon), you know that some of those hills are monster, even for a road bike. Picture me on my bike with the white seat and grips, with a basket in the front in my lowest gear huffing and puffing away, while two cyclists on their road bikes give me the nod as they pass me. Yeah...Blue Belle can climb!
  
• I've been cooking. For my birthday, I cooked a bunch of stuff for a wine dinner...Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic Cranberry Sauce, Cornbread Apricot and Toasted Pumpkin-seed Stuffing (made with homemade gluten-free green chile cornbread), Wild Rice with Pearl Onions, Dried Cherries, and Apricots, Polenta with Comte Cheese, Spiced Apple topping over ice cream. Recently, we have been sharing a farm-share with my mother-in-law, so I have made some new veggie recipes...Roasted Acorn Squash with Chile Vinaigrette, Roasted Beet Salad with Oranges and Beet Greens...you get the picture. Tonight I am making an Asparagus and Yellow Pepper Fritatta, Chili Lime Roasted Sweet Potatoes, and Cinnamon Applesauce. Yum.
  
• I have been reading. I read the two books that Keith has blogged about, plus starting The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson. I also read The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs. Everything so far has been pretty good, but definitely agree with Keith on the Stieg Larsson books.

More to come...and I am trying to run again.