Dana Burland

Yeah, I'm in a fantasy football league--what about it? Why? Because some of my coworkers were doing it, and they invited me, and I'm saying "yes" to all social things these days. I also said "yes" to a Pure Barre workout class outside in the middle of downtown and won a winter jacket, so this "yes" thing is working out pretty well for me. I didn't know jack diddly about picking players for my fantasy team, especially after the four names I knew were picked before I could get to them. The guys giggled at me when I picked randoms in a lol-you-silly-girl kinda way. But guess what: YES. I WON. Against one of the seems-like-he-knows-football dudes. By a good amount, too. BRB, need to work on my touchdown dance.

If you're looking for me I'll be rubbing Ben's feet, baking him treats on demand and tucking little sprigs of dried lavender in as I fold his undies. He painted the whole house by himself save a small section of the backyard, the shutters and the front door cove that I took on. In 3-4 weekends, our big paint project is DONE. The house looks like a million bucks. Brand new. Three colors instead of twenty. We're getting compliments from neighbors. It feels real good. Front: Back: Work in progress: For the record, his treat on demand was homemade egg rolls, which paired nicely with that Spartans win I put in a request to Dantonio for.

Wednesday night I received a Fitbit notification. My brother challenged me to a Thursday “Daily Showdown”. The rules are simple—the user with the most FitBit steps from 12AM Thursday morning to 11:59 Thursday night wins. Let the battle begin! 9am: I planned to wake up early for a walk/run, but I slept crappy the night before. I'm still awake and on the move before him and I brought walking shoes to work, alerting my coworkers I’d be on the Walkstation all day. 12pm: I’m ahead by 2,000 or so steps and stop for lunch. Evan surges past me while I’m eating. His coworker, privy to our challenge, requests Evan fetch a pen—but it has to be from the building next door, a 10 minute walk away. 1pm: I’m back on the Walkstation. I’ve reached my daily goal of 10,000 steps and I’m 4,000 steps ahead of Evan when I get off. “That should get you the win” says a coworker of mine. “Eh, It’ll get me an hour and a half knowing my brother.” 3pm: We’re neck and neck again. My boss n...

Things you could stick before “5K” to catch my attention: hard cider, chocolate, puppy corgis, pasta buffet. I haven’t “raced” in a while—I’ve been far too busy milking injuries and excuses—but this race seemed fun so I signed up before I could talk myself out of it. And I signed Ben up, too. Hey, we’re that couple that 5Ks together , right? The race was a trail run at a local cider mill. It was 60 degrees out and raining on race morning, but there’s always an electricity in the air at organized foot races that negates crappy weather. Because of aforementioned trail and weather, this run was really interesting. There were 300+ people on a, at times, one person wide route. Also, trail = dirt and dirt + rain = mud. SO much mud. So muddy several times you had no choice but to walk and to grab on to a nearby branch to steady yourself. Both factors made running, and passing people, a challenge. And this is going to sound strange, but I’m so thankful for it. I’m not in my best ...

Yep, this is a whole blog post about yogurt—and it’s a long one—pure wildness ahead, buckle your seat belts friends. I jumped on the yogurt bandwagon at a trendy time. Greek yogurt especially is like the Caitlyn Jenner of the grocery store these days. So hip. So now. So in demand. Recently Chobani came out with Chobani Flips—half amazing flavored Greek yogurt, half yummy crunchy mix-ins. My current fav is Almond Coco-Loco—coconut flavored Greek yogurt with honey roasted almonds and mini chocolate chips. OMG GIVE IT TO ME!!! Except… they’re kind of pricy, kind of calorie heavy and they kind of annoy me when throwing away that much plastic. This weekend I ventured out to recreate these on my own, putting my middle school knowledge of the scientific method to use. Ugh, that reminds me of those awkward safety goggles we were forced to wear. Ughhhhhh. Question : Can I haz Chobani flips better? Background Research : Google says either cream of coconut or coconut extract can...

There's just something about Lake Michigan beach towns...      

In a house around the block from the one I grew up in was a guy named Kirby. Nice guy. Weird guy. Weird like he'd "run" at a walking speed in a full sweatsuit in the summer. And weird like one day he came over while my parents were painting the outside of the house and asked for a swatch of the color they were using so he could use it. A few weeks later, Kirby's house matched ours almost perfectly. He Kirby copied. And now Ben and I are about to, too. We have three new neighbors--one in front, one next door and one behind us. It doesn't look like anyone has fully moved in yet, but neighbors are coming--I've got three paper plates of chocolate chip cookies waiting for delivery. The house behind us? Yesterday a crew taped off each window prepping for a paint job. Today the whole house is gray. Gray as in the same gray we're planning to paint our house. The same gray we've had up on the siding by the garage as a test swatch for the last month and a ...