Iron Christmas 70.3- The catch

Now that registration is closed and the race is underway it is time for my catch. This can't be straight forward, that would be too easy! Since I have never raced a WTC I am not familiar with their rules, however I have read the USAT rules over and over. Since they have penalties, so will I!

The penalty for this race is desserts. 3 cookies, 2 brownies, or one piece of cake/pie equals a one minute penalty. Starting 12:00am 12/20 until when the race is completed, tally up all of your holiday delights, enter how many penalties and calculate your penalty time accordingly. It will be added to your race time.

How is your progress going so far? Me, mine has been slow but steady. Monday I ran some intervals and walked for rest totaling two miles. Tuesday I biked 8 miles, ran 3.1, and biked another 8. This took the place of my normal terrible Tuesday. Wednesday morning is speed work for a few miles and I will follow it with my 1.2 mile swim.

Also, now that BDD is officially in I am going to need a sacrificial lamb. Since he won my last and only contest it would be a shame if you guys let him win again. If you see him out on the course bite the bullet and take him out (if you can catch him during his hammerfest)

Now back to your regular scheduled broadcast......

Yesterday I wrote about my need for extra income. While I was making my expenditures list I googled fundraising ideas. and came with a long list, many I could not do and a few I could. I gave serious thought about how to hold a virtual date auction. Legitimate, not the prostitution I was trying to use Adam for.

What I did decided on was considering my love of dogs,I will try to make a few dog treats and try to sell them. I figured at my work their is a staff member who has a great dane rescue, a poodle breeder, and a pet photographer. I should be able to peddle at least a few of these.

I pick a recipe and went to the store to pick up my secret ingredients. I spent $5 total, thought was good for low overhead.

I mixed the wet and dry ingredient separately and then mixed them together. These particular treats are flavored with natural peanut butter.

It made enough for two pans, so I wrapped up the second and put it in the fridge. I then rolled out the dough and cut them into seasonable gingerbread men.

I realized that I had never made any kind of treat that involved being rolled and cut. I had the hardest time picking them up to get to the cookie sheet.  After they baked, they looked better but a little rough.

 I rolled out and cut the 2nd batch. They were much easier to cut out than the first batch. I think it was because the dough was cold. While they baked I had a puppet show with my wife's pot holder. I don't know when it became stylish for gingerbread men to wear berets. I think he might be french. Hmm....

This batch looked much better and were thicker. I gave one to holly and one to sammy and they didn't even leave crumbs. The recipe ended up yielding 36 total and used half the ingredients. Doing the math that means I should be able to get 72 from all of the ingredients.

I decided to sell them 2 for $1 and trying to appeal to the holidays I put them in plastic bags and and tied them closed with ribbon. Cellophane would have been nicer but I was trying to go cheap. Doing the math again, if use the ingredients until empty I should gross $36 and net $31 after price of the ingredients. I feel like I should be charging more but am not sure I would have any response if I raise the price.

I took them to work yesterday to see how I could do. I sold a dozen off the bat to the poodle breeder. I then sold another two to one of my department's supervisors. She was really just buying them because she feels bad for me taking a pay cut to work there. One of my coworkers suggested I put them on ebay. I though that would be a good idea but I do not know how to make them stand out from the other 5,000 gourmet dog treats for sale.