Wilde Week #12

1. It's been six weeks since I decided to sign up for a half marathon.  Before this training program, my longest run was the Bolder Boulder 10K.  After finishing my 12 miles last weekend, I'm confidant I can do this half marathon tomorrow!  Here's hoping I finish it in under the four hour time limit.  My plan is to finish in under two hours.  Two laps around Central Park and I'll have finished my first half marathon!

2.  What was I reading this week?  Teen lit!  I love reading all these post-apocalyptic world stories.  They are such great commuting reads because they are fast moving and requires very little of me.  This is good because I generally fall asleep at some point on the train.  The book this week is Delirium by Lauren Oliver.  Set in an alternate timeline in our world, where love is seen as a disease, our heroine Lena learns that her world isn't quite what she thought.  A little silly, kinda sappy, yet another trilogy.  I wasn't sure I would even bother reading the next two books.  The last few chapters finally convinced me to read onto the next book.

3. Nails this week?  Okay, I painted them a few days ago, so don't mind the chips here and there.  This nail varnish from Illamasqua is called Purity.  It's actually a really nice peach, so perfect for spring.  I only have one complaint.  The coverage of this polish isn't that great.  I put on two coats and could have done with a third, but I was too lazy.

4. I want to be as daring and creative as this girl!  She heads to the thrift store and buys over sized, outdated and un-cute clothes and turns them into the cutest outfits ever!  For like a dollar each!  So jealous.  I have a sewing machine, I should buy some ugly clothes...

5. I was in Washington, DC this week!  I was attending the AACR (American Association of Cancer Research) annual meeting from Saturday to Wednesday, learning about what's happening right now in cancer research.  While I wasn't at the conference, I was wandering around DC (and logging my marathon training miles!) taking pictures with my phone.  So much fun, so many cherry blossom trees.

6. I know this is from last year, but I totally want to dust off my ice cream maker and make myself some strawberry-coconut ice cream!  It sounds delicious.  Maybe I'll wait until I can pick my own berries?

7. While I was away at the conference, Boyfriend was at home, cleaning up my mess!  Apparently he grew sick of all my cookbooks on top of the kitchen cabinets and bought me a bookshelf!  Now all I want to do is stand in front of it and look at my cookbooks.  There's a little open space up there on the top shelf, I'd better head to amazon and fill it up.

8. I'm inspired by my new bookshelf to making marshmallows and macarons.  Let's see if this inspiration carries me into the kitchen...

Wilde in Washington, DC

I spent this past week in Washington, DC for a work conference.  As luck would have it, as my train was pulling into Union station, the famous Japanese cherry blossoms were getting ready to bloom.  Over a million people travel to Washington every year to enjoy the Cherry Blossom festival.  Then there are those of us who just lucked out and were there at just the right time! 

Also, I was lucky enough to be training for a half marathon and had many miles to cover over my six days in the city.  Twenty-five miles to be precise!

I even got to test out my new macro lens for my iPhone.  That's right.  The photographs below were shot with my iPhone.  I want to wallpaper my house with these images.

 

I was so lucky to be in Washington this week.  I didn't want to leave the flowers, it was so beautiful.

Wilde Week #11

1. It took me months, but I have finally finished reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell. This book was recommended to me by a friend about six months ago. I downloaded it to my kindle and started it one morning train ride. The problem? This book takes forever to get going. According to my friend "It has a lot of pipes to lay." I'll say. The book was setting up the story and the interesting bits for over 50% of the book. Which, when the book set in 19th century Dutch- Japan, is a lot of pages to slog through. I finally finished this book (along with about ten others when I needed a break). It ended up being pretty good, it just took a long time getting there.

2. I can't wait to own a house because I want nothing more than to paint the walls. I want to see something other than white on the walls of my bedroom. Here's hoping to a new Wilde house within the year!

3. Having worked at and been a member of many gyms, I've seen most of these guys. Dude is right on.

4. I just finished my last long run before my half marathon next weekend. 12 miles through DC. What a great way to complete a long run, there was so much to look at and distract me from the miles. Have a long run to make? Take a new route!

5. Nails this week? Since I'm away this week, I decided to go with OPI nail stickers! They are quick to put on and don't chip as quickly as polish. The ones I'm wearing have little birds sitting in trees.

6. I'm in Washington, DC this week for a work conference! It's been a few years since I've been in our nations capitol and I've never been here during the cherry blossom festival. It's like NYC on a warm summer day around here, so many people! The blooms haven't opened yet, hopefully before I leave on Wednesday.  Rather than recipes this week, there may just be pretty pictures of cherry blossoms!

Have a great week!