Baking up a Storm

Lots of baking to do for upcoming days, so yesterday I got started. I'm going up to St. Cloud tomorrow evening and staying with Donnie and Cindy and then going to the breakfast run at Ace on Saturday morning. I'm bringing my bike so will bike either somewhere around St. Cloud/St. Joe or out at Rick's cabin. There's going to be a big slumber party out there Saturday night and another breakfast run Sunday morning. The weather looks to be a lot more favorable than last time when we were hit by a big ol' thunderstorm Saturday morning. So I've made ...

oatmeal raisin (Rick's favorite ... and I think Paul's too), these killer chocolate chocolate chunk ones ...

straight up chocolate chip (the recipe is called The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie, and it is) for Jay for winning a 10K ...

chocolate chip oatmeal pecan ...

and blueberry bread for the boys.

I'm not quite done, but I'll finish tomorrow. In addition to treats for St. Cloud and the boys, I need to have some "dessert" (probably going to be cookies) ready for 4:00 Sunday afternoon when my cooking group is going to my friends Jay and Joan's home to make pizza in their wood-fired backyard oven. YUM. It's an annual tradition. And I owe Nancy some chocolate chip cookies Monday morning. And ... needless to say, lots to bake. But it will be a fun weekend.

The last of the realtors reports in tomorrow and hopefully next week the house will be on the market. It's been a long road to get here. I'll be hosting an OSS breakfast run in October, likely the last one I'll be host(ess)ing. So ... I hope lots of you show up!

I decided against registering for the Boston marathon next year. I've run it 3 out of 4 years now and decided that I'm not all fired up to do it again next year. I'd like to go back at some point though. I also decided against running the Mayo Open 5K this evening. I'm just not in racing shape and didn't want to embarass/disappoint myself. TC10 is going to be bad enough.

Workouts: today, 5 mile run, lifted and an hour in the pool next to speedy Wendy. She's a dear soul. :-) Yesterday, 12.04 miles and a great workout. 10 repeats of the .10 mile Lenwood Dr hill, then up 18th Ave to Westwood, then the 2 hills on Merrihills Dr, then Hillside Lane, then the 2 hills on Crest Lane, then up Fox Valley Dr on the TJMaxx side. I love that run.

Well, back to The Help. I'm almost done now and thoroughly enjoying it. I'm going to give it to Eric to read tomorrow and think he will enjoy it as well. Now I want to see the movie.

Good night.