Cosmos 7k Race Report (#12 of 14)

Race #12 of our 14 in 2014 Race Series. Time: 1:00:12

This race was all drama, and the course was definitely short, but I loved it. I flew back very early in the morning from a wedding in California, and because my flight was delayed, I had to drive straight from the airport 2.5-3 hours (no memory of how long it was anymore!) to Bend, Oregon. I was supposed to be able to go home to Eugene first, and then Sarah was supposed to drive, but my flight was so delayed I might not have made it. We decided to drive separately, and Sarah's boyfriend Mitch ended up driving her the two hours to Bend, dropping her off and going back home.

This was a night race, and all women. It was very cool. It was also extremely hilly, which drove me crazy. There's no way to PR if there's going to be that many elevation changes because I struggle to keep going just on the flat! The elevation changes were around 260 feet. That's alot! All of my splits were over 14 minutes. And according to my Garmin, the course was only 4 miles, instead of 4.25.

That said, this race came with FOUR mixed drinks, a commemorative glass, and a purple tech t-shirt, which is my favorite of all our race shirts. The party afterwards was very fun!

This race also had the best swag EVER. This is everything I brought home in my goodie bag or got at the after party. I would for sure do this again!

Like I said, this trip was full of drama though. In addition to the plane problem, and the separate cars and Sarah and Mitch running late, I ended up getting sick on the way home. We had a nice sit down dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Three Sisters and just about as soon as it was over I started panicking that I was going to throw up or "have to use the bathroom." We rushed to a gas station and I ended up both vomiting and having a quakey tummy. I was really car sick the whole way home too. It was gross. It was about this time I started having a sensitivity to tomatoes and raw tomatoes started making me throw up, almost instantly. It seems to have calmed down a bit now, but the last few months I have throw up each time I forgot and ate them- within like 5 minutes. I suspect it's some kind of an acid problem and I'm also having a ton of gas and belly aches from eating uncooked vegetables. I don't really understand where it's coming from but it seems to be getting better.

Stephanie's Las Vegas Dirty 30 Birthday Trip!

My friend Stephanie (who I have known since middle school) turned 30 in September! So, Stephanie, Joanna and Claudia and I met in Vegas for the weekend! Stewart's (aka Steph) mom had treated us to a very nice suite in the Venetian and then we just had to pay for our transportation and food. One night we went to the night club Tao, which was very fun and another night we did a nice dinner at a high end Italian restaurant. It was lovely! Stu and Jo picked me up at the airport after they drove in from Southern California, and then we headed for the strip! The day before we left I also took Jo out to Red Rock Canyon for an outdoor boudoir shoot, which was amazing. I loved the photos we took!

Third Date with K.... Midnight BBQ

Look, at this point, all I can do is wave my hands around in the air in wild befuddlement. I guess we're friends? I have no idea. I can't read this guy at all. We were joking and teasing tonight and he told me he found me attractive and I said thank you, but I had no idea what to do with it! When we're together I feel very open and receptive and let's just see where this could go... But then nothing happens. There are hugs and flirting and I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS HAPPENING.

Last weekend I went out with a bunch of friends and ended up being their designated driver while they went bar hopping. One guy had stupidly given his car keys (their only way home ) to a friend so he could leave early. So I got sucked into babysitting everybody since I was sober and had a car. Don't get me wrong, it was fun , but also trouble. ( more on this later.) I ended up running into K in the bar, who had had way too much to drink and kept babbling about defending the honor of our cohort. (It was pretty funny.) This creepy guy, who looked like Channing Tatum, wouldn't leave me alone and kept trying to put his hands on my arm or my back. It was gross. I finally got up and told K the guy was bothering me and K got in his face and took care of it.  At school on Monday, K spotted me sitting in our department office and we chatted for awhile about the weekend. He asked me to lunch but I didn't realize what he asked me before I was already saying I needed to meet with someone in the office. So he left... And when the program assistant came out to check on me, she was all raised eyebrows and winks about it. I blushed and denied everything, of course!

I had a pretty rough day today. I had a pretty rough week actually. As you may recall, I got poison ivy back on August 2nd when I was on the east coast. I turned out to be super allergic to the P.I., and was in and out of the doctor's office 4-5 times and had an endless supply of prescriptions. So far, it looks like my skin is going to scar. It's not bad, but I hope it keeps fading.

Anyway, the doctor put me on prednisone to help things along, and she put me on an extremely high dose, and an over 5 week regime. The prednisone actualy made me feel great. All of the body ache and arthritis symptoms I usually have totally went away. I PR'd at both the Eugene Marathon Race, and at the Scandia-Fest 5k as well. It really helped me get my body to a normal functioning level. I even started unpacking from my move- over a year ago. I cleaned and sorted laundry- it was amazing! I love prednisone!

Unfortunately however, prednisone is a steriod and there are consequences for taking it more than a few days. One of the consequences in panic attacks. Another consequence is your adrenal gland shutting down, or diminishing production levels. This messes with everything from your period (hello two week cycle) to really awful things like anxiety and depression. I started experiencing side effects so the doctor prescribed me Ativan to deal with the anxiety, which worked just fine. She also wanted me to wean off the steroids a little faster, and I did. But the problem with that was, weaning off too fast doesn't give your adrenal gland a chance to get back in the groove and it can trigger a depressive cycle, which is exactly what happened. I have found myself sobbing while running, crying in the grocery store, and experiencing full blown panic attacks at home, including staying up all night wracked with paranoia. It's been a party. And also like a very uncomfortable flashback to 4 years ago right after I found out the truth about Matt. (see sidebar). The cure is to bump up the prednisone for a day or two and go back to slowly weaning off. Which I am trying to do, but I am a bit of a forgetful person, so I typically recall I didn't take prednisone that day when I find myself yelling at the dog and crying while jogging past some cute little family on the logging trail. Pbbbbt.

Now that you're caught up to what's been going on, I bring you to today. I was having depressive symptoms from the prednisone/withdrawal and didn't want to eat or talk or do anything, but felt very lonely and just BLAH.

 I just felt crappy today. I cried in Trader Joe's, I cried in PetSmart, I whined incessantly on my training run. It was poopy. I needed SOMETHING. My friends have not been the greatest about returning my texts and it was making me feel like a needy chick texting and getting no response. (And hurt my [wildly hormonal] feelings.)

So... around 10pm I texted K and said I was in need of cheering up and could we do anything sometime this week?

He answered right away and we quickly made plans for a "Midnight BBQ" tonight! I thought that was about the cutest thing I'd ever heard of. I brought a squash from my mom's garden and a bottle of wine my friends brought me back from Arkansas and drove over. He was coming from a friend's house where they had been watching the Oregon v. Washington game (we won 38-31 I think), and we walked to the grocery store together for a couple things before settling down to chopping, drizzling and BBQ'ing! K made penne pasta with grilled eggplant, red onions, yellow squash, and andiulli sausage. He was critical of his cooking but I thought it was great. We talked and drank and ate and had a lovely time. I felt so much better just to have company, and he is of course a great host! We also saw an R.O.U.S in his yard (Rodents of Unusual Size) and he talked me into going out there with a flashlight and trying to pet it. I was obviously unsuccessful, but had the pleasure of watching the giant 20 pound rat hop like a bunny across the grass, which I felt made it all worth it!

I left his house just before 3am, and he very nicely walked me to my car ( a good three blocks up hill), where we loitered around for a bit more talking. He was obviously tired, but we kept talking.. And I kept thinking in my head, JUST KISS ME ALREADY! But it didn't happen. So my mind circles back around to "We are friends," and "Stop thinking about your friend like that! It's weird!" And yet we had extended conversations, again, about dating, and what we are looking for, how lonely we are, and while going through photos of the students in our department he told me he found me attractive (I was so delighted I of course forget everything else we were talking about and can't regurgitate the conversation for you. My bad. I was busy blushing and coming up with a "cool" comeback to the compliment.)

(....Pretty sure my "cool" comeback was a smile and a thank you and a subject change like it was NBD).

I drove home with a HUGE smile on my face though, because I just felt so cheered up. It was nice to spend time with a "friend," one on one, and have a nice conversation and just be taken care of. I tried to sit outside with him while he was cooking (at 1am...) and he didn't want my butt to get cold on the concrete so he ran and got me a chair- and then sat on the concrete himself. My drink rarely got to empty because he kept it full and paid attention to my needs! He walked me to my car without prompting (unlike the idiots in my cohort), sent me home with one of his precious glass jar water bottles, and was overall, just NICE. I like him. I just wish I understood it. I don't really have friendships with men so I have no idea how this is supposed to go.

Ideas?

University of Oregon v. South Dakota Football Game

first game of the season! My friend Corrie and I went to the game together. I was supposed to go with my friend Skylar too (it was both Corrie and Skylar's first games ever!) but Skylar's dog had an emergency and she ended up in the hospital. Skylar was getting ready to go, and then all of a sudden her dog started screaming and wouldn't move her body. Skylar called me crying saying she thought the dog was paralyzed and was on the way to the ER. They're not exactly sure what happened but puppy is on all kinds of medication. She's a dauchsund, so there's a lot of potential spinal injuries or degenerative issues that culd be at play. Unfortunately, Skylar didn't make it to the game, so that was a huge bummer.

Corrie and I ended up turning around (we were almost to Skylar's when we got the call about the change in plans) and going back to Corrie's, since it is walking distance from the stadium. We got chips and guacamole and salsa and a bottle of "Light Grape" and kicked back until it was time to head on over! We also got these great Roasted Garlic & Sea Salt ruffled potato chips ( think they were Lay's brand, so technically I think they call them "wavy.") which were AMAZING. We ate the entire family size bag. It was awful. LOL

At the grocery store, we absolutely could not find fresh Pico de Gallo, and it was just driving me crazy. How could Safeway not have fresh salsa/ I buy it all the time! Corrie finally pointed out this particular Safeway caters to a very particular type of shopper: Alcoholic Undergrads. 

Have you ever seen so much alcohol spread all over the freaking FLOOR?!

After Safeway and the tailgate for two at Corrie's apartment, we headed on over to the game, which was about a .6 mile walk.

On the way over , we also found an unopened can of PBR sitting on top of a bridge. After a quick debate, we figured the risk of herpes was pretty low and it got chugged.

Go Corrie! LOL

The game was lots of fun and we managed to find some law students to sit with too. I really love going to a Pac 12 school and the free football tickets can't be beat!

 

Go ducks!

Mount Angel Oktoberfest 5k Race Report (#11 of 14)

Race #11 of our 14 in 2014 Race Series. Time: 41:55

 So I'm quite a bit behind on blogging my races from this year, so I'm trying to catch up! It's hard to remember how this went when I blog so far after the fact so I need to not do that in the future!

In September, Sarah and I did the Oktoberfest 5k in Mount Angel. Mount Angel has a HUGE festival and over 300,000 people come into this germanic village that has a population of like 100 or something. It's sort of wild. I remember this being a good race, with a flat course and good weather. Afterwards we got our free beers that came with our race bibs! I just remember it was really warm, and being tired and the beer being really, really refreshing, which is not typically how I feel about beer! It was very cold though and it felt good! Then we ran around sampling food and checking out the festival. We  sampled lots of different things. It was a good adventure!

Sarah also forgot her IS (of course, because she always does!) and I had to sneak her into one of the food tents. She went through the line like a minor, while I got ID'd and hand stamped. I realized I could re-stamp her hand with my wet stamp so I can over to her and pressed the backs of our hands together and transferred my stamp to her hand so we could both get in and have lunch together. I was pretty proud of my sneakiness there!

We decided to bring home Charlie Brown the leftover sausage we got... so Sarah tied it up with her heart rate monitor! LOL

Recipe: Chicken Dinner

I have always been fairly terrified of raw meat. I have had no interest in learning how to cook it- pretty much ever. The only exception to this is when my college boyfriend David and I were pretty serious and I thought we might get married. I wanted to be a grown up and learn how to cook for him (since he was already cooking wonderful meals for me) and so I tried to learn how to cook a tri-tip. After causing a fire which included 3 foot flames shooting out of a BBQ that was only 6 inches off the ground to begin with, I gave up that fantasy.

Since moving to Oregon and meeting my friend Sarah, I've been working hard on learning how to cook chicken without vomiting from sheer disgust. She taught me a simple way to make it (without touching it) and I've adpated this even more so to minimize contact. I am proud ot say I now no longer gag when looking at the frozen chicken and even eat what I cook. It's like a mirace. I feel like such a baller!

The way Sarah taught me was to take a piece of skinless, boneless chicken breast (I use Foster Farms), dump it in a bowl and run warm water over it for 10-15 minutes or so. I initially adapted this to hot water so it was actually cooking it a little before I stuck it in the pan but now I'm skipping this part to. Instead, I do this:

Take a single frozen chicken breast and dump it (without touching it) on to a baking pan or cookie sheet.

Sprinkle some seasoning (lemon pepper, or garlic salt & pepper) on top.

Pour a little olive oil over the top.

Crank oven to 450 degrees and stick in for about an hour. (Including the preheat time- and I do put the chicken in there while its pre-heating.)

About 3/4's of the way through, flip the breast with a knife or fork. Hope to hear a sizzle as you flip to a hot part of the pan.

That's it! It should come out golden brown and look roasted. It's great.

The recipe I just discovered (aka Made up) includes the above directions, and the last 10 minutes of baking time (when chicken is definitely cooked but not golden brown yet), I cut the breast in half and move to hot parts of the pan again (to facilitate the browning). Then I take a whole red onion and cut into 6ths. (Half, half again, half one more time)Dump in pan with chicken and spray with a little pam.

Let that roast for 10-15 minutes at a max. (Until done).

Remove from oven, dump on plate, and then top with diced tomates, (cover in garlic salt & pepper), and sprinkle with feta. I happened to grab a bottle of fry sauce when I was in the Salt Lake Airport, so I use this as a dip or drizzle on top. The whole thing is amazing, and around 300 calories.

LOVE IT!

Fitness, Weight Loss & Dieting

I think I've been on a diet since I was 10.

 Taken in February.

In the 5th grade, I distinctly remember having a whispered, worried conversation with my friend Jessica Noble about our weights. Jessica was very tall, and probably a healthy weight for her height, but I was very short. We weighed the same- 100 pounds in the 5th grade. I was very ashamed and she had somewhat similar feelings, best I could gather. We confided in each other for comfort and I felt better.

Not long after this shared confession, I had a conversation with someone in my class and they asked me about my weight.  I, feeling empowered by my shared struggle with Jessica, told the girl flat out what I weighed. The girl was was horrified. (She probably weighed around 45 pounds and was actually probably underweight.) I tried to stick up for myself (aka, I was defensive) by telling her Jessica weighed the same and she looked good. Jess had been pretty matter of fact about her weight so I assumed she wouldn't mind. This little brat marched up to Jess and told her I had said she weighed 100 pounds, same as me. Jessica flat out denied it. Said she had never said that and she didn't weigh anywhere near that amount. She even denied it to me in private later on. I was humiliated. And felt alone! I often did feel alone and isolated in elementary school. Despite the fact I had good friends, I often felt abandoned or excluded, like in this scenario. 

By the time high school came around, I had started restricting my caloric intake to under 1,000 calories a day. But I also had started binging, and eating in secret, hiding food, so I didn't lose any weight. I would secretly do work out videos in my room- until my mom heard the repetitive foot steps upstairs and confronted me about it. She said it was fine I was exercising, she just wanted to know what I was doing. I was so embarrassed and ashamed I denied it, and never worked out at home again. Allowing other people to be aware I was bothered by my weight was very upsetting for me. I don't know why.

When my parents were at work I would secretly run around the neighborhood, or do Tae Bo videos at my dad's house with TV on mute so no one would know. (My dad had a single story house so no footsteps to hear!) But it didn't work. (Or minimally.) I just always felt hungry, and I was alone a lot. My most striking memories from high school are of walking home (a good couple miles over hills), stopping at CVS and buying either a pint of ice cream or a bag of chips. Every day. I'd eat that for lunch in front of the TV watching Days of Our Lives and Sunset Beach. I was a shy kid, I lived with a drug addict for a sibling, and my parents weren't home alot. I didn't want anyone to come to my house, so I did my socializing at school. Outside of school, I mostly hid out at home. It was embarrassing. Our house wasn't that nice, and I was embarrassed of my family. I loved them, but I didn't want to have to explain my sister's problems, or my dad's temper, or my mother's lack of boundaries to anyone.

In college I gained weight in the dorms (of course), and by the time Spring term rolled around, I had re-dedicated myself to losing weight. I started getting chicken breasts and black beans at the DC ("Dining Commons"/cafeteria) and started trying to run/walk again. This time I was more successful and lost somewhere between 20-40 pounds over 7 months or so.

But it didn't last. (It never did.) And the cycle continued. A few times I dropped significant amounts of weight- the most striking being when I really started running (5 miles a day, very, very slowly) and went from over 230 to the 160's. (Around 70 pounds.) But it came back. It took some time, but it did. The one interesting "consequence" to getting my weight down that far was boys finally started paying attention to me. That was new, and I finally started dating- way behind the curve.

Generally speaking, I average about the same weight that I did in high school- somewhere around 200. Sometimes above, sometimes below, but that's the neighborhood my body likes to hang out in. For me, that's about a 14/16 pant size and a Large (sometimes XL, but not usually) top. It's probably good that I've managed to avoid getting even bigger, but I am not happy at this size. My mother used to manage a Diet Center, and has a degree in Family & Consumer Sciences- I don't believe she taught me wrong, but I do believe I self-medicate with food. I know that I struggle with depression, and more recently I've realized that I am a fairly anxious person. I've had issues with anxiety since childhood. But no one ever really caught on that that was the problem. I didn't really learn coping mechanisms until I started therapy Post-Matt. I can recognize when I am having anxiety now, if it is fairly significant, but I've stopped myself with a bowl of Ben & Jerry's a couple of times and thought- "Are you  eating this just because you're trying to avoid working because it stresses you out?"

The answer to that question turned out to be "yes," too.

The fact of the matter is, eating sugar or carbs gives your brain a short term dopamine/seratonin boost. For someone who naturally lacks these hormones (like me), eating those kinds of things- refined carbohydrates- puts my brain back at a "normal" level where I can deal with life more easily.

First, that's sad.

It also makes struggles with your weight really difficult. You need to have effective coping mechanisms for anxiety in place in order to avoid using food as an anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication.

I have wondered if I need to be on a light anti-anxiety medication again, just for general maintenance. But I'm not super enthused about doing that. I was on meds for quite a while with the Matt debacle, and also after I left law school the second time. It was rough going. Being on meds also requires a high degree of monitoring. I know what is entailed in that process- it's very effective, but it's also a lot of work.

My inclination is to try and increase my own mindfulness with my anxiety and how it relates to food. This year, I've dropped about 10 pounds  since January (going from a high of 207, to a low of 193, and then bouncing around the 195-197 neighborhood) and that is definitely the slowest I have ever lost weight. I have two thoughts about that- it's good, slower is more effective for long term sustainability- but it's also frustrating because I'm still about the size I always am. Except I'm over 30 and every thing looks different now!

I am consistently active now, and enjoy the activities I do. I'm a lot more social, and depend on friends much more so than I did in the past. I'm also just a lot more confident person. I think those things happen with time, age and experience, but they are also the result of therapy and working out some of that childhood baggage. I want to keep working on this, and I hope that I can report some change and progress in the future.

Second Date with K, Movie in the Park

For a whole week after my first date with K, I freaked out and wondered what it all meant. I had no objections to him as a person, or physically, or anything else. While I hadn't felt a whole lot of "magic" on our date, I was anxious to know where we stood, and K wasn't making it clear. He didn't ask for another date, and yet we were still communicating pretty constantly.

 I felt confused. Maybe it wasn't a date? If he was interested, wouldn't he have asked me out again? And if he wasn't interested, then he would have just dropped me. ...Right? Unless it was platonic...?

I spent a whole week hyperventilating about it before finally emotionally vomiting on the Program Assistant at our school (who had a small hand in orchestrating the whole thing) about the situation.  Her response was basically to tell me to CALM DOWN and just ask him out. He asked me out the first time around, so why not? Also, make specific plans. During that week of freaking out K and I had talked about getting together but never made concrete plans and it just went awry. She suggested we go to a movie in the park which was a great idea.

As soon as I left her office I looked up movies in the park and happily saw a listing for "Homeward Bound" playing in a park by my house that Friday. Funnily enough, K and I had an entire conversation about Homeward Bound during our first dinner together so it felt very fitting.

I asked him and he accepted right away. I decided to make another go at making that cake (sticking to my original recipe, of dark chocolate cake, dark chocolate ganache) and K promised to bring milk for us to share.

For the recipe, go HERE.

The cake came out great tasting the second time around but still wasn't perfectly pretty. I'd like to make it one more time just to show I'm not a dumb-dumb. 

Anyway, back to my date story. K does not drive (not many people in Eugene do) so I picked him up at his house. I was pretty comfortable, but still decently nervous. I felt like our interaction as not defined as platonic or otherwise and I strongly disliked the ambiguity. 

When I walked up to the door, the second I knocked, the toilet flushed. That made me laugh. K opened the door, said "Hi,'" and then asked if he should bring anything- like a blanket. I said I had brought a giant bedspread/quilt from home so we were good. His response?

"Oh, I'll just grab one anyway."

It was that moment I knew this was platonic. In my head I went, "Ohhhh."

Because, if this was not platonic, he would have wanted to share my blanket. We're in a park, watching a movie under the stars- this could totally be romantic. IF we shared a blanket. If this was a romantic date, wouldn't he want to be as close to be as possible? So the inverse must be true as well.

I was a little disappointed, because I like possibilities, but this was an okay outcome for me too. It's 1.) good to have male friends, which I have very few of, and 2.) I hadn't felt the magic on our other date anyway. I was also just thrilled to eliminate the questions on my end of whether he was interested or not. NOT INTERESTED. Great! Totally clear!

We had a good time in the car, laughing and joking with each other and I felt much more at ease since I felt I knew where we both stood. We got to the movie just before dark. We hauled our blankets (all two of them) out into this open field and had our cake and milk, which was delicious. We talked some more and K teased me, and I again felt that confusion about his intentions.

Upon reflecting on our dates over the last couple of weeks I have come to believe that our first date was, indeed, a date. However, something must have eliminated me as a prospect either during our first date, or shortly after for K and I think K shifted gears. (Or tried to.) I am pretty sure that dinner at his house had romantic possibilities. I think he must have decided I wasn't a fit for him, which is an okay thing. (But it doesn't' mean I wasn't the eensiest bit disappointed.)

The movie was fun, and I had a good time. I'm glad we went! We each stayed on our own blankets and never touched each other (accidentally or on purpose) even once. It also turned out to be totally freezing, so actually, I was glad I had my whole darn blanket my self. (Stupid K.) I let him freeze in his shorts and tiny little lap blanket. That's what you get for going platonic on me kid.

On the way home K asked me to go salsa dancing with him... And immediately followed it up with a comment that he needed as many people to go to the class as possible because it was in danger of being canceled. For a whole two seconds I thought I had read the situation wrong, and that maybe he was interested, but then I was like... no.

I dropped him off at home, and felt better about the whole thing, at least having the relationship defined allowed me to relax a little.

Weirdly enough, we still talk and he still makes flirtatious comments. He asked me to get together again and that he wanted me to make more cake because mine was so good, but his approach was awkward, and there were no concrete plans so it just felt... awkward. I also felt like he was treating me ever so slightly like a bakery, which I was not in to. The conversation turned into a trading of insults and I felt disappointed in myself that I stooped to that.

He did sort of invite me to a tail gate at his house in a couple weeks so I guess we'll see what happens with that. In conclusion, K confuses me, and while I enjoy his company, mostly he leaves me feeling bewildered!

Chocolate Raspbery Cream Torte Recipe

My first attempt at baking this cake was a total fail. The second was not great, but better! A few people asked me for the recipe, so here we go! This is not super specific because I tend to make things up as I go along.

The cake still didn't come out quite perfect because I still didn't have a spring form pan. (I just borrowed a standard round from Sarah.) But it was much better than the first attempt.


CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY TORTE  RECIPE

Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Cake Mix (I use Duncan Hines Devil's Food)
Heavy Whipping Cream (2 cartons of the standard size)
Pint of Fresh Raspberries
Raspberry Jam
A good quality dark chocolate (I use ghiradelli)
Round cake pan

I use a standard chocolate cake mix to start. I don't feel it's worth the effort to actually make the cake part from scratch, especially considering how much work the rest of the cake it.
I use a Devil's Food Duncan Hines- or whatever the richest, darkest, chocolatiest cake mix I can find is. Follow package directions for baking.

When mixing the cake, I dumps broken pieces of chocolate in the batter at random. Not a ton- maybe the equivalent of a candy bar.

Bake cake in two 9 inch rounds. Let cool, then cut off the tops (to make them flat) and then cut one layer in half horizontally (splitting it into two round layers) (to make 3 layers- one full size layer, and one layer split in two. There usually isn't enough batter to do 4 layers because one of the rounds is inevitably too thin.)

Spread some thick raspberry jam on top of two of the layers. Let it sit in the fridge a day or so to soak in. You can even make some light cut marks on the tops of the layers to help it soak in a little.

On another day, make the raspberry mousse. I take heavy whipping cream and whip until almost stiff in the mixer. Add some powered sugar, fresh raspberries, and a small amount of raspberry jam for flavor. Be careful- if your jam is runny, it will turn the mousse in to liquid. Make sure it stays STIFF.

Put mousse into a pastry bag or a ziplock (cut off the corner of the bag to turn into a ghetto pastry bag) and then pipe a gutter around the edge of the cake. Then pipe the filling across the rest of the layer.

Stack layers/pipe more.

Your top layer should just be cake, no raspberry, no mousse.

Stick back in the fridge, ideally for a few hours or even a day.

Then make the ganche. You can just google a recipe, but all we did was slowly heat more heavy whipping cream on the stove to a simmer/boil. Then we dumped it into a bowl of high quality chocolate chips (we used ghiradelli) and let it sit. (DO NOT STIR). After 10 minutes, stir.

Then you just dump it on the cake and swirl it and smear it around until it's pretty and the cake is totally covered. You might have to do a few layers of ganache to make it attractive. Store in fridge. The longer it sits, the more the raspberry flavor blooms into the cake.

Enjoy!

...PS If you stick your cake in the freezer to speed things along, be sure you don't smash it into the ceiling of your freezer.

___________________________

Football Game at K's House (University of Oregon v. Michigan State)

In September, K hosted a house party for one of Oregon's first away games. He got a projector from school and what seemed like a billion people came over for the game. It was so fun to be with so many people and to run into people I knew in other contexts. All of our social circles are ultimately tied together because of the law school so you always end up seeing somebody else you know!