Fierce Addictions

I'm very proud of myself today. In fact, I gave myself a much-deserved pat on the back.

What amazing feat have I accomplished?

I came up with an excellent, new candy concoction.

Here's how it went down.

My new favorite snack is dry roasted, sea-salty almonds. While munching on these, I was blindsided by a craving for an old favorite. I'd been successful at kicking a fierce peppermint patty addiction, but it recently came back with a vengeance.

Not that I'd been dreaming of either almonds, or peppermint patties, but this morning on arising the first thought that came to me was, wait a minnit …what if I combined the two?

Do you wake up with candy combinations in your head too? I'm not the only one, right?

Turns out, it's an amazing new reality for me. Sort of like an almond joy, but with a minty, rather than coconuty, happiness factor. It's very nice indeed.

Why hasn't Nestle thought of this yet? Do I have to do everything?

To balance out my obviously-stronger-than-me-so-I-long-ago-stopped-trying-to-beat-it sweet tooth, I've added a little more running to my cardio routine.

My knees are not pleased with this development.

Fix one thing, break something else …

So, I made a trip to the local sports store and asked the kid-who-looks-like-he-could-be-a-Jonas-brother about trail running shoes to protect my knees.

He pointed to what looked like the only trail running shoes on the rack and said, these are for trails.

Are they for pronating, or supinating, I asked. Because I supinate, and it's causing IT Band Syndrome.

These are the shoes we have for trails, he said.

But how can I know if they're right for me, I said.

I'm wearing them, he said, pointing to his feet.

He bounced up and down and said, "they're good."

Do you trail run?

He looked at me a moment.

I run, he said. To my car when I'm on break.

I bought the shoes.

My knees are still mad at me, the right one pink and a little swollen, but hopefully they'll adjust. It's not like I'm asking them to run marathons.

What can I do to fix pissed-off knees? Let me know if you know of anything …