August 28, 2011

Game Day

Another game day is upon us.

For most people, talking about "game day" on a Sunday means football.  Sorry, but not me.  Game day means I get to play some HackMaster.  It's been about a month since we've played with my Home Group and I for one want to finish off the dungeon.  We were a player short and possibly under the recommended level so we went with 3 players playing 2 PCs each.  Not my preferred solution, but the game must go on!

On the plus side, one of our old friends moved back to town and is currently living about a block and a half down the street.  How awesome is that?  He is supposed to be joining us this afternoon to check out the new HackMaster Basic.  I'll probably just let him run one of my PCs so he can get the feel for it and then I'll help him roll up his own.

Normally Game Day involves some extra cleaning and cooking around the house.  I'm just on a brief break from making some Zucchini Bread.  This isn't a picture of my bread, but it looks pretty darned close to this.  The picture here is actually Zucchini-Carrot Bread and can be found if you follow this link.  I've been toying with my recipe some, starting off with one I really liked and barely tweaking it.  I've got it almost down where I want it.  I think I need to cut back on the cinnamon some and flour the pans.  I'm tired of the bread sticking even a little bit in my baking pans.  When using lighter pans, the right amount of cooling and a little twisting actions usually does the job, but I have some nice heavy-duty pans that simply do not flex.  One bit of baking advice that I'm proud to say I came up with all on my own....and is appropriate here: When making any type of dessert bread where you need to oil and flour the pan, don't use flour.  Use powdered sugar instead.  Works just as good as flour, but doesn't negatively affect the taste or look of the crust any (well, at least generally).

I am also making my Sourdough Wheat Bread because I can.  It has been a while since I baked bread.  Generally I don't count "dessert" breads.  My Sourdough Pot hasn't been used enough in the last couple months, so I figured "what the hell".

Our old friend that moved in down the street asked if I'd go running with him this morning.  His idea was a 6-6:30 AM jog.  No thanks, but maybe later in the morning.  I normally get up about 7:15 or so, but this morning I actually set my alarm for 6:15.  I dressed and stretched before hopping onto the Wii fit for some stretching and exercising.  When 7:00 rolled around and I hadn't received the pre-determined call, I took the dog to the park and then went for a quick run by myself around 7:30.

Big mistake.  I managed a 7 minute loop down the block and around the park.  I hadn't run in years and I weigh too much.  It was painful and I knew that it was going to suck hard before I got about a third of the way around.  My knees where problematic forty pounds ago and I just couldn't get a good breathing rhythm going.

Since I'm wanting to slim down a bit and get into better shape I'm not going to give up, but I am going to modify.  The Wii fit is "new".  Carolyn bought it a long time ago and it had been sitting in the box for maybe a year...maybe a year and a half.  I broke it out three days ago.  The yoga kicks my ass on a regular basis and in the last three days I've been told my "Wii Fit" age is, in order, 37, 53, and 38.  I'll keep giving the Wii Fit a go, but I'm also going to resume going back to the gym.  I really enjoyed the low-impact machines that let me run or do steps.  I shoudl check to see if they have a rowin


No comments: