Out of Sight, Out of Mind

This weekend, we broke down and scrubbed the inside of this baby.

If you look closely, you'll see the messiest part of our house. 

Disgusting, splatter-y, caked bits of all the delicious things we've cooked over the past 13(?) months. 

Did I mention the best part about the microwave? You can shut the white door and the microwave looks marvelously clean. 

Speaking of out-of-sight out-of-mind items...let's call this post my return to blogging. 

I'm embarrassed about the dearth of blogposts at this URL. 

Unbeknownst to the world, we have been doing things and going places, we just haven't been adequately documenting for the blog-o-sphere. Not that it helps, or that it makes it okay, I have compiled a list of excuses (seen below). Feel free to use these excuses when you are in the valley-of-no-blogging. 

At the U.S. Open in Queens. We about died on our drive out there and we sat (literally) on the back row, but it was so much fun! 

We got to see Federer and Venus Williams play (not each other).

1. Overuse of computer-y things during the day. I am on my computer for at least nine hours a day. The last thing I want to do when I get home is hunch over a macbook and type for another few hours. Also, I had a bout of painful tendonitis earlier in the year and I'm not 100% recovered. (I'm mostly better, but let's just say I won't be using my finger/wrist muscles to climb El Capitan anytime soon.)
2. My free-time is devoured by my commute. It takes me an hour to get to and from work. Luckily, I don't have to drive, which means I can do other things, like nap, people-watch, read, or study. However, my phone is way too small to use to draft verbose blog posts. I don't even like texting on that thing. (I miss the old-fashioned buttons that make texting 5 times faster!) 
3. I like to cook. Let's recap, get up at 7 am, leave at 8 am, get to work at 9 am. Leave work between 6:00 and 7:00. Get home between 7:00pm (at earliest) and 8:00 pm. Even if I bust out of work at the earliest second possible, I don't get home before 7:00pm. Which usually means that dinner isn't ready before 7:30, 7:45 unless we're having frozen burritos or something. I try to cook quickly, which means that the kitchen often looks like a war zone when I'm done. (I'm getting better, but I still probably use four pans, when one would do.) SO, after dinner, we do the dishes and clean the kitchen. With no dishwasher, this is about 30 minutes.  So we're done with dinner around 8:30, at the earliest. Often later. 
4. I (attempt) to like to run. On the nights when I'm not cooking, it usually means I'm trying to jog. If you include changing and showering, my runs take (at fastest) 1 hour.
5. My computer battery doesn't work unless it's plugged in. As pathetic as it sounds, this is probably the biggest barrier to my blogg-I-ness. I dislike working at a computer on a desk/table because it reminds me of work. The tether of my cord makes lounging on my bed typing away impossible and thus, blogging unappealing.

This lack of prolific-ness is only made worse by the fact that I LOVE reading my friends' blogs (and occasionally strangers' blogs) so much. I'm a blog-stalker extraordinaire. 

Even if I pretend I don't read your blog (because it might be embarrassing to know everything that's going on in everyone's lives), if you post semi-regularly, I probably do.

Anywho, this is not much, but a few pictures from the last few weeks.

We went out to the Hamptons and I ran (my second ever) half marathon.

Proof. Look at those rippling muscles. 

We are successful gardeners! I really enjoy these purple flowers by our window.

Yes, many people have hoop earrings larger than our prize bell pepper, but that doesn't diminish our love for it. And we showed our love by chopping it up and eating it in a delicious Indian dish.

We had our friends Alli and Travis over to make caramel apples to break in the fall weather. 

The only mistake? Waiting until after Fast Sunday to eat ours! 

(we should have partaken immediately, those apples are devilishly good looking)

If you haven't tried rolling caramel apples in crushed butterfingers, you should. RIGHT now.