Eric's true doppleganger and my important life lesson

I'm really in a numbered list mood right now. Mainly because I'm flying high from just watching How I Met Your Mother and I'm finding it difficult to focus. Anyone else watch?

1. On Sunday, I had one of those runs where everything just came together. Perfect temperature, beautiful setting, minimal people in my way, and my legs felt great. I was even all zen and brought no music - I actually don't think I've listened to my ipod once since JFK? I ran 7 miles at the fast - for - me pace of 8:19. It's hard to figure out what led to this ideal run - I made so many horribly unhealthy choices this weekend, it's impossible to narrow it down.

At work, I ran another mile and a half trying out some shoes (I'm slowly trying to run in all of them so I can get a true feel to describe them to customers). 

2. Now I'm an insomniac. I used to get into bed, crack open my book, read about 3 words and then pass out. "Sleeping in" meant I slept past 7:30 am. I figured it was old age and just accepted that was my life now. Just when I was on board, my body decided to mess with me and now I can easily sleep until 10am without even trying, but I'm wide awake until past midnight. Plus, when I fall asleep, I'm lucky if I can make it an hour before I'm awake again. I'm really trying to get back into the 9pm to 5am sleep habit this week, just in time for Christmas vacation with my family full of night owls. 

Prior to the insomnia, Eric and I stayed up way too late on a mission, but more on that later.

3. I made soup for the crockpot last night. I experience a deep joy in pushing that little button in the morning, and knowing that it means that dinner will be waiting for me when I get home from work, without me having to lift a finger. I made Lentil Minestrone soup from the Year of Slow Cooking website - if you haven't seen it, and you love having delicious dinners just waiting for you to eat them when you walk in the door exhausted from work, I highly recommend it.

4. Even though dinner was ready, I did a little extra work to bring it from satisfactory to extraordinary. I'm pleased to report that I have finally discovered the ultimate beer bread recipe. Despite the fact that I think beer is the most vile substance a human can drink (and yes, people have tried to fool me with crap like "no, this beer tastes like cherries! This one tastes like coffee! This one tastes like chocolate!" - no, it all tastes like nasty beer), I absolutely adore beer bread, and so does Eric. Even more so since my beloved bread maker became unusable in a tragic accident. 

I made beer bread recently to go along with my return to the world of meat (bacon on my baked potato soup). I couldn't find the recipe I usually use, so I found one that seemed ok, and that didn't require a stop at the grocery store. It was decent, but didn't impress me, so I moved on to a different recipe that the Crouton Queen linked to (I know I mention her a lot but I swear she has a super power to find the best recipes the internet has to offer - and an adorable baby).

Lesson learned - when faced with two recipe choices, and one of them involves drenching the item in butter, go with that one. 

Full disclosure - when I made the previous loaf, I was coming off my "I am going to/just ran/one time ran 50 miles so I will eat alllll the foods forever!!!" period. Furthermore, that was soon to be followed by a week with all meals provided by the world's best cook, my mom, during the world's best eating holiday, Christmas (sorry, Thanksgiving, but I stand by my opinion). So I was trying to healthify my food in the meantime. 

Bad decision. Don't make my mistake. Make this beer bread immediately. It's super easy too. I don't often make beer bread, but when I do, I use Dos Equis. I'd post a picture, but we all know what a loaf of bread looks like.

5. Despite my insomnia, I managed to wake up to run this morning. Then I looked outside and realized the end of the world IS coming, because it was so foggy I couldn't see across the street and the humidity was at 96%. So I read Glamour on the Elliptical at the YMCA and then did Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Level 2 so I felt like my upper body got in on the action. 

6. The reason Eric and I were up so late. 

On my last post, I asked readers to weigh in about whether or not Eric has a twin on Games of Thrones. We already know he does, but he doesn't believe it so I was really just trying to prove I'm right (even though everyone we know in real life already backs me up). But my friend Nicole brought back a wonderful memory of the time Eric did actually meet his doppleganger, Mr. Maryland Leather, at Baltimore's Gay Pride parade in 2006. (Side note - don't google Mr. Maryland Leather. My stepfather learned that the hard way.)

Our old computer's hard drive was wiped out by a virus, so we didn't have the picture file saved, and we went crazy looking for it at like 10pm. We didn't find it, but after a good horrible night's sleep, inspiration struck and I saved the day.

Here you are. You're welcome, world.

Eric really wishes there was a better picture but we were interrupting the parade enough as it was.

Do you have a doppleganger?

Ever had a major fail trying to healthify a recipe?