Apparently Good Spin Music is Good Stay Awake at 2am Music

Date: January 19, 2015

Author: astottler

Hey guys! Here is the official recap of my Disney trip!

We ended up leaving about 2 hours later than planned…which was actually in our favor. I5 shut down in the middle of nowhere (as in, no way out) due to a big diesel truck crash. Despite sitting on I5 for 2.5 hours, I really enjoyed the drive down. We blasted music-I DJed for 8.5 hours. I started off with the Spin playlist I taught on Thursday. It was a hit in the car, so here it is!

The problem with leaving late and getting stuck for 2.5 hours? We didn’t arrive until 3:30am. Around 1:30am everyone in the car was asleep (minus the driver) so I assumed the job of keeping the driver awake and navigating. The driver requested my spin playlist again…so apparently a spin playlist is good “keep the driver awake at 2am” music.

But we finally made it! We left for the park the next morning around 10:30. We had park hopper passes, meaning we could go both to Disneyland and California Adventure.

The first thing we did was run to Space Mountain to pick up a fast pass-which was good because the time to come back wasn’t until that night!

The first ride we went on was Pirates of the Caribbean, which I hadn’t been on before. After that, we waited in Indiana Jones line for an hour…only for the ride to shut down as we got close to the front. At that point, we cut out and got the famous Dole Whips, which are whipped pineapple soft serve. Those are definitely a must!

Then, we headed over to CA Adventure to go on California Screaming. That’s a pretty intense roller coaster in comparison to the ones in the Disney park! I walked out with my head spinning in circles, so I opted out of a second ride in favor of riding the merry-go-round.

Dinner was clam chowder in a bread bowl. Pretty much all that was eaten this past weekend was sugar and carbs…

Then it was back to Disneyland to meet up with the group and go on Space Mountain. This was definitely my favorite ride! I think the music adds a lot to the experience!

Then, we grabbed churros for the line at Indiana Jones. We played silly games to pass the time-I learned that one of my friends is apparently proficient in origami? Through 2 truths and a lie. The ride fortunately didn’t shut down, and I enjoyed the ride. I was pretty disappointed with the boulder though (if you’ve been on the ride, you know what I mean-if not, I won’t spoil it!). It didn’t really show up for some reason! Ah well.

Then we headed to the younger kids’ area, now that it was later and less crowded.

So pretty at night!

It’s a Small World was a must. It was still decked out for the holidays, which was really cool!

The last even of the night was Fantasmic, a water and lights show roughly based off of Fantasia. It was really cool-here’s a shot of the dragon from Sleeping Beauty-it seriously came out of nowhere!

And it was then time to call it a night. The next morning we cooked breakfast and hit the road. Road snacks? Coconut lemon macaroons-SO good!

I’ve never done this drive in the winter before, and everything was so pretty and green. I actually like driving through the center of CA a lot-you see things you’d never otherwise see! It was so much fun to be on a road trip with friends.

Towards the end of our journey, the song “Skyfall” came on right as we hit a big, dramatic patch of fog. The soundtrack was pretty perfect-the song ended right as we drove through the clouds.

Isn’t California pretty?

We made it back in under 6 hours this time. We did stop at Tin Pot though, where I got the Cookie Monster Ice Cream, which has cookie dough chunks and oreo!

It was such a fun trip-even with the 2.5 hour delay getting there! I haven’t been in over 7 years so it was nice to go back!

What is your favorite Disney ride?

I Knitted a Scarf Today

Date: December 17, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Guess who is a knitter?

Well, that might be a stretch. Back in the day, I knitted quite a bit. I guess it was the cool thing for middle schoolers to do? I have quite a few hand-knitted scarves, and just as many unfinished projects. I don’t think I’ve FINISHED anything in 10 years! (No joke!) I started a scarf last winter with my friend…that is currently sitting in a bag in my dorm room, very much unfinished. My knitting attention span was/is tiny. My favorite thing to knit when I was little was hats for my iPod because they didn’t take very long!

Well, today I was hanging out with my high school friends. One of them wanted to make a quilt…and the trip to the craft store sparked the crafting bug. I’m terrible at crafts in general, so I was drawn back to knitting.

Well, as it turned out, I pumped out a whole scarf today! It’s an infinity scarf, and it’s the first infinity scarf I’ve made (so it isn’t without its flaws). Not a bad day’s work!

Food

I met up with my high school friends (mentioned above) for brunch today. It was so nice to see them, and I didn’t mind the pancakes either!

Blueberry pancakes with a side of an egg.

We later walked to a frozen custard food truck, where I enjoyed some vanilla bean custard with burnt caramel sauce.

We spent all afternoon catching up, until it was time to break for dinner.

Roasted parmesan cauliflower, asparagus, sweet potato, and rosemary chicken. The recipe turned out sort of strangely for the chicken and it was pretty bland, but I would seriously be happy to eat plain chicken with ketchup any day of the week! Especially when there are roasted veggies involved!

Do you ever do any crafting?

On the Eighth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

Date: December 5, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

8 holiday traditions.

Hey guys! Sorry this post is going up a little late. My blog was down for some unknown reason last night-I hope that did not cause anyone problems!

Also-does anyone mind that I’m not linking the other 7 days? It was starting to get really tedious in terms of posting but also with the link backs. So without further ado, let’s get into some of the holiday traditions I/my family do every year! Here’s last year’s!

1. Every year my family goes to Napa over Thanksgiving-whether it be for the day or just around Thanksgiving. I can’t remember the last time we didn’t go. This year we went for Thanksgiving day and the day after.

2. Every year I pull out my peppermint body spray from Bath and Body Works. I got this at least 5 years ago, and the smell just reminds me of the holidays! Plus, it’s sparkly!

3. Every year on Christmas Eve, my family loads into the car with the dog and drives around looking at Christmas lights.

(I totally almost used the same picture as I did last year…)

4. Every Christmas Eve my family goes to Benihana’s, a Japanese steakhouse where they cook food in front of you.

5. Every year my best friends and I get together and make Christmas cookies. They’re just basic sugar cookies, but the fun part is decorating! This one started out because as middle schoolers we were obsessed with plaid things, and wanted to make plaid cookies.

6. Shopping in the city. Every year around the holidays, the same friends and I go up to San Francisco to go shopping and walk around. And see the kittens in the window at Macy’s.

7. Christmas movies. These happen every year as well, although the only one that we seem to see EVERY year is Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas. That’s my dad’s favorite-not sure how he manages to get that on the list every year! It does seem to have some good life lessons though. My favorite is The Year Without a Santa Claus.

8. Decorations. This is one of the best parts! A simple bow can make everything more festive. We always get a real tree. We used to go to tree lots, but found Whole Foods has the best and cheapest trees!

How does your family celebrate the holidays?

WIAW and Life Lately

Date: October 22, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! Today’s WIAW is going up a little bit late, but that’s ok!

Today’s post will sort of be photo dump style. Expect more organization tomorrow-I’m recording a “Day in the Life” today!

Dinner on Sunday night was a giant Mexican salad with an obscene amount of avocado. I can count of one hand the number of times I’ve had avocado since coming to school….

Also a cheese quesadilla on top.

Breakfasts have been same old, same old. Which I actually like, because it’s nice to have a routine, but doesn’t make for the most interesting blog content. The other day there were bananas though, which was a nice change!

While this lunch wasn’t the most exciting, I loved how colorful it was! Mashed sweet potatoes, hard boiled egg, and broccoli.

Yesterday, I went out to lunch with my family. My mom and I split a chopped salad (see my version here!) and an arepa with gouda.

Dinner at the dining hall was meh. The roasted vegetables were great-the food I did get was good, but there wasn’t a protein source so my meal felt like it was majorly missing something.

I remedied that by making some chia pudding, eaten in front of the Giant’s game.

I left it in the communal fridge to thicken, and I feel like people probably judged me heavily because it looks pretty weird!

In terms of life things, I’m officially having a Halloween party! I’m a little obsessed with holidays, and I feel like if I didn’t have one, I’d be sitting around by myself on Halloween. I invited people yesterday, and have zero idea what type of turnout I’ll get. On the plus side, my high school friend is visiting, and she’s very artsy so she can help decorate!

Other life news: this gum. It tastes like love and happiness.

Also, I love my Giants and I love my friends.

SO HAPPY about yesterday’s game! I’ve planned my whole life around the games so it was great to get a win! So happy guys, you have no idea. Let’s hope we keep this up!

What have you eaten lately?

Memorial Day Weekend

Date: May 26, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

First, a huge thanks to all those serving or who have served.

(Source)

I also want to spend a moment honoring those killed in the Santa Barbara shooting. This truly is a horrific thing, and I can’t imagine what it must be like for the students there. They are all in my thoughts!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! I had a pretty busy one-not a million pictures but packed with fun, friends, and family! As we speak, I’m fighting heavy eyelids, and it’s still early!

Friday night was a retreat for my sorority. The girl’s house we stayed at had a wood burning oven, which was awesome!

And a cat-even more awesome!

Here are some other Friday food pics: cappuccino, berries+banana+sunbutter, and dining hall lunch.

Saturday morning, I drove the early car back to campus and went to 10am Crossfit. The workout included lots of ring dips, ring rows, and burpees, plus a long farmer’s carry at the end! (Farmer’s carry is holding a heavy weight-I had 2 20kilo kettle bells!)

Saturday was spent doing housekeeping related things-I FINALLY got a car wash, cleaned, and did some laundry.

I then proceeded to stay up much too late prior to an early morning run. I went home to run with Crossfit people there-at one of my favorite places to run! It’s the trail I did all my long runs on last summer!

I did 6 pretty fast (for me) miles. Running with a group definitely makes me run faster than I would have otherwise! Our overall pace isn’t indicative of how we ran most of it, since the first mile was pretty slow. When I split off with a few other people from the main group, we picked up the pace quite a bit and ran most of it around a 9:15 pace.

I was definitely sore from this! I then returned home to visit my parents and kitties-but not before being convinced to spend the night at home so I could do Murph at my home Crossfit today.

I refueled with a simple egg sandwich and some of my mom’s leftover birthday cake.

After catching up with my parents, I was off to the mall for business casual shopping with my high school friends! The only picture I have from that was a froyo break.

Dinner with my family was a favorite of ours-BBQ chicken salad. The salad consists of chicken breast with barbecue sauce, on top of a salad of lettuce, fresh corn, red pepper, onion, tomato, avocado, and olive oil and lime juice.

I also managed to get plenty of kitty time! Although my allergies definitely flared up. Worth it!

Monday morning, I did” Murph”! Murph is a Crossfit workout named after a fallen soldier, Mike Murphy, and is traditionally done at Crossfit boxes on Memorial Day. It’s one of my favorite Crossfit workouts, and consists of the following:

1 mile run

100 pull ups

200 push ups

300 squats

1 mile run

It’s one of the longest Crossfit workouts, and is recommended if you’re beastly to be done with a weighted vest (which I of course did not do).

I’ve done this workout once before. Like last time, I broke up the middle circuit into 20 rounds of 5 pull ups (banded), 10 push ups, and 15 squats. I was conservative on the run, but I’m definitely slower running than last time I did this (although my legs may have been a bit heavy from the previous day’s run). I was about 20 seconds off of last time on the first run, and significantly slower on the second. 300 squats makes the second mile feel like death! Although I didn’t beat my previous time (3 minutes off), I was the 3rd person to finish, and the first female! My time was 47:30. But here’s the super crazy part. The pull ups were so easy! I used the same band I always use for WODs, and it just never got difficult like I was expecting! So after I finished the workout and gulped down water, I figured, what the heck. I’ll try some unbounded pull ups. (If you’re keeping track, I’ve done one pull up once.) So, I just did it. And it wasn’t hard, at all. So I did another. And another. What…?!? It felt just like doing the banded pull ups! So I’ve clearly been slacking off! I think doing 100 pull ups with the band really honed in my kipping technique..or something. It was awesome though! I’m going to try to keep up this new found ability!

And here’s a group shot post-Murph.

Right before leaving this morning, I threw my experimental loaf in the oven. It was good, but still needs some work before it’s worth sharing. Any guess as to what it is? 🙂

After Crossfit, I refueled with some of that, plus some egg salad and roused carrots. No pic, so here’s breakfast pre-Murph: egg sandwich with Monterey Jack, on whole wheat.

And some of MY leftover birthday cake was consumed as well.

And now here I am! I may not have had the healthiest weekend in terms of sugar consumption, but it was definitely active-I got some great workouts in! And I loved the time spent with friends and family. Now, I just gotta push through these last few weeks until summer!

What did you do for the long weekend?