Three Things Thursday

1. I'm going to make a semi-embarrassing confession: I suck at making coffee.  I seriously don't know what my problem is, but at least 50% of the time my coffee tastes yucky.  I've cleaned the coffee maker with vinegar, tried other brands, tweaked my measuring...who knows.  This week, though, I broke out an appliance I bought a year ago and never touched--a French Press!  I'd always heard that the french press made the best cup of coffee, but when my purchase didn't really come with any instructions, I let it get dusty sitting on top of my fridge.  When my brother was in town for Christmas last week and craving coffee, I gave him the task of figuring out the (shockingly simple) French Press.  Sure enough, it made AMAZING coffee!  Today I actually tried it on my own, and I am definitely hooked.  It's a little more time and effort than using the drip coffee maker, but it makes the perfect amount (about 6 cups) and seriously tastes so much better.

2. I have a love/hate relationship with winter running.  It is SO HARD to get out there and do it, especially when your bed is so warm and snuggly and the temperature outside is so cold!  Buuut there are some definite perks.  First, I feel justified in waiting until noon or 1pm to start my run since it's the warmest part of the day!  Since I'm being a lazy teacher this week and soaking up every second of relaxation I can, that meant I had an excuse to lay in bed reading and reading blogs until after noon yeseterday before getting out on my 8 mile run.  Obviously I could have gotten up, been productive, and THEN gone running, but that's just not as fun!

Pre-run: All bundled up!

I also love how empty the trails are on cold winter days.  (Running in the middle of the day midweek may have had something to do with that too!)  It's just so quiet and peaceful.  I even saw 6 deer yesterday!

Post-run: Awful picture, but my philosophy is that if you still look cute after 8 miles, you didn't run hard enough!

3. After talking about doing it for the past few months, I finally bit the bullet and booked a cleaning service to come scrub down my apartment Saturday afternoon.  I live in a one bedroom tiny apartment that in theory I should be able to keep clean, but let's be honest, I'm more of an "organizer" than a "cleaner."  Very different thigns.  I do a little surface cleaning here and there, but my kitchen floor needs a good scrubbing, as does my stove, base boards, and shower.  At this point, I don't care what it costs--it will be worth it!  Growing up, my family was by NO means wealthy, but my mom would always splurge on a professional house cleaning before holidays, back to school, etc.  I swear those cleaning ladies have magical powers, because no matter how hard I worked to clean, it would never look and feel as amazing as when they are finished!  Cannot. Wait.

(I'll spare you a picture of my dirty kitchen floor and dusty shelves...)

4.  I'm sneaking in a 4th thing!!  It's a short one tho--this is my school bag:

It hasn't moved from where I dumped it almost two weeks ago after getting home from school on our last day.  Guess I should probably open it and start cracking on my LENGTHY to-do list, huh???  Maybe tomorrow..

Winter running--love or hate?