Bo. Nan. Za.

Today was a running day, but even running days don't completely trump everything that has to happen in a morning. This morning, I had a couple of quick to-do items to complete before heading out. Fortunately, my running partner is very patient:

"The road's been calling my name, Mommy. It's time to answer!"

Unfortunately, my to-do items had me running around a bit, so I was all kinds of warm before hitting the 14-degree air. While I do love the cold, my skin prefers to be eased in just a wee bit! My cheeks were stinging for that first quarter mile! But, like we talked through with PC#3 and his cold ear issue this weekend, I just kept moving. Before I knew it, I was all kinds of warmed up!

In fact, I was quite warm when I had to stop for a moment to collect a bo-nan-za for the Food Bank! I would have taken a picture pre-aquisition, but as I had to take my gloves off to retrieve the stash, moving fast seemed most appropriate!

Check out the haul, round one:

That's big bank, baby!! Very dirty big bank!

Most of this was in between a crack (no gum on a straw required ... ha!). My fingers didn't fit down far enough with my gloves on, so off they went! A little manuevering resulted in a big score!

It also resulted in some nasty:

Ew.

Ew. Ew. Ew.

But, a little snow to wash and black pants to dry took care of that problem until I was able to shower!

Elly had her own fun investigating the footprints of beasts before her while I took care of my business:

After the little yet profitable pit stop, we were again on our way. Hey, do you know that when you wash your hands with snow and it's 14 degrees outside that your fingers get crazy cold even in gloves?

Soon after getting feeling back in my fingers, Elly and I were approaching a cross walk. Two men were crossing there, and one suddenly bent down, picked something up and proclaimed in triumph, "Hey! A penny, man!" He was all smiles, and you know I totally understood. I was seriously happy for him! But, as we approached that same cross walk, I just had  to take a quick scan because I've learned that when you see one penny, there is often another hanging around. This time, where there was smoke, there was fire:

This fire came in the form of a quarter!!

Holy moly this was a great day for brining in the Food Bank bank! I even found one more penny before my third mile. That made for eighty-six cents today!!! Think about it -- that's almost 15 pounds of food from the Bank in one outing!! Super score!!!!

Would you like to know the other super score? Okay, you know how I said I had to dig much of the money out of a crack without my gloves? That exposed my very pretty purple nails to the world's hazards. But, check them out:

Not. A. Scratch. Let's ignore the terrible painting job I did and
only focus on the durability!

That leads me to my very unlikely shout-out for the day:

You've been my favorite since I found you.
Now, I have even more reason to love you.

Oh, and one more thing not related to today at all ... you know how I'm always gushing about Hungry Girl's Crab Rangoonies? Check out what fancy thing I did with them the other night:

Instead of folding and closing them, into the mini muffin pan
went the wonton wrappers, and they were fabulous!! They also
took about half as long to bake which I also liked. The wonton
tops were crunchy, and the bottoms were soft. I sprayed them
very lightly before baking with cooking spray to see if it helped
with the crunchy process, and I'm certain it added nothing. So,
that's one less thing to do next time!

The verdict was split over here -- the kids
like the fold-over kind better and the adults
like these. The reasoning was purely a desire
-- or, lack thereof -- of the crunch. No one
declined his or her share!

And, with that, tomorrow is another running day! We'll see you after hitting the streets!