12.02.2015

Looking Back: November

November was one of those months where you feel kind of relaxed and you think you have plenty of time until Christmas and then all of a sudden, you get a slap in the face because it's already Thanksgiving and the advent calendars are about to come out. This November I even scheduled a couple of "free" days in order to get some of my December errands done early, but they quickly became "non-free days" or at the very least "not as productive as I wanted them to be" days.

Running: This month I did have a couple of long weekend runs (20 + 20 + 18 miles respectively). That coupled with a race gave me a grand total for the month of 126 miles. Aside from a run or two on the weekends, I have not been doing a lot of weekly workouts. However, I did rack up 20 miles of hiking, 18 miles of cycling and 3 strength training sessions. My goal for December is to do at least 2 strength training sessions per week.

Reading: I only read 4 books in November, which on one hand is a bit surprising since I did travel for work. However, on the other hand, when traveling on the plane I watched movies instead of reading (The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game). Also, one of the books I read was 849 pages long and it took me a while to finish! The four books were:

A Spool of Blue Thread (3 stars)
Into Thin Air (4 stars)
11/22/63 (4 stars)
A Tale For The Time Being (3 stars)

Travel: November was (mostly) a month of  doing things around my local area. I spent a couple of weekends going over to Marin to run on the Dipsea trail, I had my Dad visit and we worked on some things around the house, I had people over for dinner, and I met up with friends for hikes. In addition, I hosted 17 people for Thanksgiving at my house, which went over pretty well in my opinion!

I did travel for work to New York, and I spent a fun time with old friends in Brooklyn and Queens before heading over to Manhattan for two days in the office there. My favorite thing to do in the city is to eat and I did plenty of that! I had great Haitian meat pies in Brooklyn and Russian food in Queens, and then in Manhattan went to two great restaurants: Deux Amis and NoMad.

I am looking forward to January when it will be a bit more relaxed and I can finally do that project in the yard that I have been meaning to do for the last 6 months (wow, has it really been 6 months already?). Until then, there will be a barrage of Christmas parties (I have 3 in the next week alone!) and a bit of shopping and cookie making and eating and visiting and hosting. And eating.

How did November go for you? What is your favorite Christmas cookie (to make or to eat)? How many Holiday parties will you be attending this year? 

4 comments:

  1. Wow, November was jam-packed for you as well! The month was a bit of a blur for me as well as I started off the month with a work trip then went to PA/NJ for a friend's wedding. And then the rest of the of the month was filled with social plans and prepping for the meal I hosted on the Friday after Thanksgiving!

    Now that I am GF, I don't have a favorite cookie as it's too complicated to try to make cookies GF. It requires trial and error and a lot of different flours so it's just not worth it for me. But I can eat the heath candy (I think others call it toffee?) and peanut brittle. Plus when Phil and I do our Christmas celebration, we have a tradition of baking something together and this year we are going to try making GF chocolate chip cookies. We will see if they are edible. ;) As far as holiday parties, I have 3 to go to for work (one for my department, one for all of Minneapolis, and then one in Chicago) and then we have Phil's company Christmas party! Besides that I don't think we have other ones to attend!

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  2. I really want to read 11/22/63. Especially now that it's being turned into a TV series.

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  3. Great job getting those long runs in! November flew by.. seems like we always had something going on with football, 4-H or cows. I did get in lots of good runs though :)

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  4. November was pretty laidback for me and I took advantage of some quiet weekends to really hibernate, which I needed after a busy fall. But December has definitely snuck up on me and I do not feel ready for Christmas at all! Feels like we just had Christmas last year!

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