Pi Day!

Thank you to Desiree for the great idea to celebrate Pi Day with a 3.14 mile walk. To be sure it happened I did it first thing Saturday morning. It is so easy to get distracted throughout the day - no matter how good your intention is to get in a workout.

I am usually satisfied with a walk anywhere in the 15 minute mile range. This one was over 17:30 per mile. And I have 5 very good excuses reasons for my unimpressive time. Before I begin my list, let me preface by saying..."I am proud of myself for getting out and getting it done."

#5 - Puddle dodging.  We had a ton of overnight rain. We were originally projected to have between 1-2 inches. I am not a fan of soggy feet, so if I can avoid a puddle, I will. I am thankful it was warm. Imagine if all that precipitation would have been in the form of snow. I believe the estimate is 1 inch of rain = 1 foot of snow. Yikes!

#4 - Picture taking.  But how could I not stop for a quick snap of a bunny eared mailbox??

#3 Worms!  I have NEVER seen so many worms. Seriously, I saw more worms on Saturday then I have seen in my entire life combined. They were all over the street. Big ones like this one...

 ... or this one....

And hundreds more of every size. Some still crawling and hundreds of dead ones like these. I was a little grossed out at the thought of all those worm guts on the bottom of my shoes. It is difficult to walk and worm dodge under these conditions. Let me be crystal clear...it was disgusting!

#2 - Strange dog. Near the end of my first lap my husband met me and stopped to tell me about an incident he had with a husky. He was running and all the sudden something hit the back of his leg. When he turned around he saw this dog. It ended up not following him, but my husband wanted to warn me about where the dog might be. Sure enough he was there waiting. He ran out to me. I can't say he was aggressive, but definitely stood his ground in an unfriendly manner. Any time I moved a little he would step closer and make an odd noise - not a growl, but not a "hey pet me" noise either. We stood in this awkward stare (with me looking away to not appear threatening) for several minutes.

Finally, my husband came around the loop again and rescued me. He ended up standing between me and the dog until I passed around, then he was able to shoo the dog off the road. After that, we decided to go to another part of the neighborhood to finish. Dog - 1 / Walkers - 0

And the #1 reason for being slow - Lack of Consistency.  I have not been walking everyday and when I have walked, I haven't been doing my previously normal 3 miles. There is no way to keep your skills up if you don't practice. And this definitely holds true for walking fast.

All in all, it was a fun way to start Pi Day. And I am sure you might guess how we ended Pi Day. Since I had been keeping track of odd March holidays I had been thinking about Pi Day in advance. With it being a Saturday I had plenty of time to do a little baking. My niece came over in the afternoon and we baked an apple pie and a peaches & cream pie. We decided to invite a bunch of people to help us eat it.

My husband got his favorite kind of pie...pizza!

And then there was the dessert... My husband requested Apple Pie with two crusts. Apple pie is not my strong suit. The crust didn't look evenly golden brown, but I was definitely pleased with the flavor. It worked out to make apple pie because I had some free apples I wanted to use up. They weren't very crispy so I wasn't crazy about eating them raw. I was about two apples short so I added a couple of pears. One day, I might try an all pear pie.

Peaches and Cream Pie  This pie starts with a cheesecake-like layer, then a peach layer and finally the crumb topping. It was a definite "make again" recipe with a few adjustments. I would have liked more peaches and less crumb topping. Maybe next year :)
At the end of the evening this was all that remained. I might have had pie for lunch today...don't judge :)

This was by far the most festive Pi Day of my life. I love random celebrations with family and friends.

A couple other random weekend moments...

Happy pups soaking up the Sunday morning sun.

I am not sure what message I should be receiving, but these were the conditions I was forced to blog under this weekend. Is someone trying to shut down "Losing My Puppy"??? Or is this my fan base??

Happy Monday, everyone!  Hope it launches you into a great week :)