It's Christmastime Bitches

I LOVE decorating for Christmas.

And every year, I insist on doing it the weekend after Thanksgiving. It puts me in a good mood. Most years, I also insist that we watch "Love Actually" while we're decorating, but this year I was feeling the Muppets.



Our tree is nothing special - a prelit special from Target a few years ago - but it's easy.



This year, I added lights in the kitchen, on my new(ish) shelves.



I'm pretty sure at least half of our ornaments are dog-themed.



Even though the dogs are really not impressed by the tribute.





...at all.



(She spent half the evening wigging out about the tree, the lights, the boxes of ornaments, etc., and then, when she had exhausted herself, laid on the floor looking depressed.)

Later in the week, I crockpotted a London broil from my cow share. Since London broil is a fairly lean cut of beef, I figured it would do well with a low-and-slow cooking time, but I was having a tough time trying to come up with just what to braise it in. After my initial google search turned up a disturbing number of "recipes" including ingredients like canned cream-of-something soup and packets of ranch dressing mix (or italian dressing mix or brown gravy mix), I just decided to wing it. I chose not to brown the meat first, covered it with salt, pepper and granulated garlic, and put it on top of a layer of sliced onions in the crockpot. I added a couple cups of beef broth, topped it with mushrooms, and called it good.



Hours later, it looked promising. My house smelled amazing and the meat fell apart to the touch. I paired it with some kale sauteed with a slice of bacon and eagerly dug in.

Meh. The flavors were delicious, but because the meat is so lean, it was kind of dry and stringy despite all the broth and juices. I think it either needs to be browned first OR to be cooked in something a little fattier. Or just not crockpotted at all. Le sigh.

Like I said last week, work has been insane. I went two solid weeks without my usual evening crossfit sessions, and it's been taking its toll on my sanity. Even though my foot is STILL not 100%, I'm getting back into it this week, slowly but surely:

- Tuesday: strict muscle up skill work. Practicing false grip hang; did about a billion false grip ring pull ups, starting with a light band and working up to two mini bands. Tried one mini band and just hung there like a fish, so there's that. Metcon: AMRAP, 3 rounds of 1 minute ring rows, 1 minute push ups, 1 minute double-unders. It's freaking hard to do double unders after two minutes of ring rows and push ups. 120 reps total (tried for the last 15 seconds to get JUST ONE MORE double under and couldn't).

- Thursday: hero WOD. "Nutts."



Things I cannot do with my bum foot: box jumps and weighted running (non-weighted running, too, for that matter). While I probably COULD have done the required wall balls and double-unders, my wise and logical coach advised me not to tempt fate with more jumping. As scaled for my foot: 10 push ups, 15 deadlifts at 165lbs, 25 russian kettlebell swings at 1.5 pood (24kg/52lbs), 50 pull ups (light+mini bands), 100 goblet squats with a 1pood (16kg/35lbs) kettlebell, row 1k. Fuck rowing. By the official 25 minute cap, I had rowed something like 450 meters, maybe less. To complete, 27:32. Worst part mentally was the goblet squats. Getting to 80 reps of something only to realize you still have 20 more? GAAAAAAH.

Tonight we're front squatting and I can't wait. This strength cycle has been really fun (lots of pulling and lots of fun squatting variations - front squats, overhead squats) and I'm so unhappy that I've had to miss so much of it. On the other hand, DTE tells me on I'm on track to bill over 2200 hours this year, so, you know, there's that.

(I read recently that trying to make partner at a law firm is like winning a pie eating contest where the prize is more pie.)

Happy Friday!