does halibut exist?

We slept in a ton this morning.  The whole, “wake up with the sun” thing is not going well.  To our credit, we were out for a birthday celebration and didn’t get back until after 10pm, so we didn’t get in bed until 11:30 or so… and I love my 8 hours.  I suppose no one is surprised, since Scott and I are known to be the best at sleeping in among all of our friends.  Alas, I crawled out of bed at 8:45 and was hitting the road for my run by 9:08am.  Not too shabby for vacation, right?

I ran the same path as Monday, just without the walk break in the middle.  Since I slept in, I figured I ought to have my Nutra Grain bar (strawberry, yum) and bottle of water before I headed out, so I took my time getting ready.  I also decided I was in the mood for music this morning, so I made a quick playlist of Death Cab for a Cutie, The Dudes, and K’Naan before heading out.

I had an almost-scare about 1/4^th of the way into the run, though.  I was running down the road when a medium-large animal runs into the middle of the road about 25 yards in front of me.  At first I can’t tell what it is – a baby moose? (Hey, there are moose here!  It was a legitimate concern!)  A small deer?  Oh, no, a dog.  Running right at me.  I love dogs – not afraid of them whatsoever… but when a large bull dog is running straight towards you, and you have no idea if its wild or just out of his yard, it’s mildly frightening.  I almost did a U Turn and sprinted away right then and there.  Luckily it’s owner was in the house up on the hill to my right and called out to me, saying it was his dog and the dog was harmless.  So, I continued my run and the dog joined me for part of it (about 30 seconds I think) before it got tired and went back to his yard.  Fun times.  The rest of my run was way less eventful.

I’m really starting to think I’ve measured the distance incorrectly, because I went pretty fast!  I mean, I was pushing myself as much as I thought I could, but it just didn’t seem like my pace was really as quick as my watch would say.  I clocked my 2 miles in at 20:48, so a 10:24 pace.  Hopefully I really am just getting better at running and as a result, am able to run sub-11 minute miles without dying… who knows.  Either way, it was a good start to our official 8k training program (we are using Hal Higdon’s 8k training program for beginners) and I’m looking forward to my next two 2 mile runs on Friday and Sunday!

By now you are probably wondering what this post title is about.  Well, I went grocery shopping today and I had picked out a delicious grilled halibut recipe to make for M and my other friend K this weekend.  I got to the grocery store – which has a pretty extensive seafood department (plus we are only 20 minutes from the coast) only to find NO halibut.  This wouldn’t be quite as ridiculous, except that this is the THIRD time I’ve searched for halibut to no avail.  I tried once at home and went to three different places… no dice.  Remember when I made shrimp and scallop jambalaya for friends?  The original plan was to do a halibut recipe, but after 2 grocery stores I gave up (and that was 20 minutes from a rather large bay).  I’m starting to wonder, does halibut exist?  If so, where the heck can you get it?  And why is Betty Crocker offering up simple recipes with ingredients that are impossible to find?  Alas, haddock was on special at the grocery stores and I don’t think I’ve ever had haddock, so I’m substituting it for halibut.  I’ll let you know how that turns out after the weekend.

I know I promised pictures of fresh vegetables from Scott’s aunt’s garden today – but it’s pouring rain right now!  So instead I'll leave you with a photo of the sunset from Sunday evening.  It was so pink and beautiful!