The Rain, Oh, the Bloody Non-Stop Rain

The last few days here in Sydney have been pretty rainy. In fact, it's honest-to-goodness been raining for a full week, no breaks.

Unfortunately, it's not supposed to stop any time soon.

Rain has brought out the worst in me. On a good day, I spend most of my time squirreled away indoors, reading The Internet and watching too much TV. On days where it rains non-stop? All productivity grinds to a halt. Let me tell you, Steven's lucky I'm still showering (and I'm only doing so because it's the warmest place in the house! Humidity + no indoor heating = really cold house).

Yesterday, I fell to a new low.

I began watching Bachelor Pad 2012. That's right, I'm watching reality show RERUNS, and I'm hooked.

This morning, however, there was a break in the clouds.

Suddenly I got my mojo back! I was more active in these few hours of sunshine than in the past 5 days!

I took a homemade wrap down to Steven during his lunch hour.

We had some Starbucks until he had to go back to the office. Then, I went home, and decided I wasn't going to wait on my run this week. I had sunshine NOW, so I had better haul ass.

It was the muddiest run in my life.

That water was literally FLOWING down the steps, creating muddy puddles everywhere.

However, I don't think I've ever had so much fun on a run before. I was dodging puddles left and right, leaping, jumping, cross stepping like a pro. I loved the patches of sunshine and new green grass on lawns. I even loved the huge hills and massive downhills. I'm definitely going to miss these neighbourhood runs, especially those bush-walky / trail bits that are just so beautiful.

I'm lucky my Vibrams are lightweight, water-happy shoes because I got them soaked.

Post run, I did some stretching, drank about 3 glasses of juice, and showered. Does anyone know how to gracefully get out of sweaty, sticky work-out clothes without pulling a muscle? I need some sort of shoe horn for workout clothes.

My stats:
4.45 miles in 55:07
Average pace 12:22 min / mile

This can't be utopia!

Yesterday, my other half-chromosome set and I went for a run.

It was 5.3 miles of hills and trying not to choke on her dust. She runs fast.

Luckily, I finished pretty strong, and went home to eat a ginormous breakfast.

The sister was complaining of knee pain, so I taught her "Thread the needle" pose as Moksha calls it. It's a really important runner's stretch because it targets tons of external rotators and especially my pain in the ass.

Here she is modeling it, while The Dog looks confused.

For the knee that pains her, I taught her how to get into it without torquing the knee.

Two decided to join the party. She is also a fan of healthy knees.

Later, Steven and I were scheduled to go to a housewarming, so we ate an early dinner at a restaurant highly recommended by friends: Utopia.

Steven had the chicken quesadilla. He said it was very good, but the coleslaw was weird (it was, I tried it), and the rice and beans mediocre. 

Our friends had the bison burger, which he said was AHHHH-MAAAAHHH-ZING!

I don't have a picture of it, but I ordered the Veggie Souvlaki.

It sucked. The pita was hard and stale, the veggie "meat" was cold. The only redeeming feature of my dish was the hot fries and some nice tzaziki (which they charged us 95 cents for an extra little dish anyway).

Later that evening, I had dumplings at home cuz I got hungry.

Alas, it has been proven that Sandy Cannot Live On French Fries and Tzaziki, Both Of Which Are Obviously Nutritious and Filling so This Finding Comes as an Absolute Surprise.

Before the house party, we walked around Queen St. W. Loblaws and found my new future home.

Down the street, we also saw this:

Is it weird that I want it?!

Piriformis pain in the A$$!

My right butt cheek is getting a lot of attention these days.

I woke up the other day with a pretty severe piriformis pain, coming up from my hip and into my lower back. While lying flat, I could feel the tension singing through my hip, like a bee buzzing in my ear.

IT'S ANNOYING! AND IT HURTS!

So I tried all the stretches I know for the piriformis, and nothing worked!

Then, at the yoga studio, I asked some crazy lady to put her knee in my bum. She put me on a foam roller instead.

And it was good.

It was very good.

The next day, I woke up with much less pain. Already it felt like it was getting better.

So, I tried to replicate it at home with a yoga block.

*grunt* *shuffle* *grunt* *shimmy* *grunt*

"AGGHHHH I GOT IT I FOUND IT I FOUUUNDDD ITT UUGGGHHH"

Two-Two got worried.


She decided that I needed a donut to make my piriformis feel better.

Take a good look at this bad boy. Because I ate two.

Two.

Two-Two wanted a romp before dinner, so she lead the way.

When we got home, I spent some more time digging the edge of my yoga block into my hip.

All this self-treatment is starting to create some weird bruises on my bum.

So, to make me feel better, the strawberry-jam-loving boy took me for Soon Tofu. If you've never had Soon Tofu, here's what it looks like.

Like all Korean food, it starts with appetizers.

Then, you get a steamy pot of melty tofu in a luscious soup filled with green veggies.

The rice comes in a stone pot (see below).

Then, your server pours water into the hot stone pot to make a rice porridge to consume after the tofu. I never finish this part.

I find it bland compared to the yumminess of the previous parts of the meal.

And now I'm eating cereal and watching home reno shows. And possibly definitely digging a yoga block into my hip.