Are you doing a 40 in 40?

So yeah, Lent started yesterday but it's never too late.

I'm not Catholic and I don't feel the need to "give up" anything for Lent, but there are a couple other ideas out there that I've shared before (see last year's post). One is the 40/40 Challenge. It's 40 minutes of exercise every day during Lent. The 40 days doesn't include Sundays; you can rest on Sundays, or not.

The other is 40 Bags in 40 Days, brought to you by White House Black Shutters blog. This is about de-cluttering. I'm pretty sure I could get rid of 40 bags in my closet alone. If you click on the link back there, you'll get some great tips and ideas if you think you might not have 40 bags worth of "stuff."

Having said that I don't give up stuff for Lent, this year Aaron made a suggestion that initially made me laugh my head off, but actually I'm kind of digging it. We are giving up dining out -- in Columbus (an important distinction which will become clear very soon). We shall see how this goes...

Since this is my first post of the week, I also wanted to share that last weekend was our annual neighborhood chili cook-off. Here are the winners (categories include Best Vegetarian, Best Traditional, Hottest, Most Unique, and Best in Show).

This year's Most Unique went to a chili called "Sexual Chocolate." They even made their own sign for it:

If you can't read it, some of the ingredients included chocolate stout and cayenne cocoa,
and the garnishments were chocolate-dipped bacon, cilantro and sour cream.
OMG, it was delicious.

Ash Gwensday (yep, I went there)

So yeah, due to my extreme procrastination and laziness and lack of scheduling my posts, coupled with a busy work day and a church service, I am just now (9:30 pm EST) sitting down to write this post. And I probably would have blown it off but I wanted to show y'all some pictures from last weekend because it was quite eventful. Since Monday was full of Oscars talk and yesterday was devoted to the 40/40 Challenge, well, here we are on Gwensday and I didn't want to neglect the fun weekend stuff.

This is a party bus:

This bus transported 20 of us from the neighborhood to a surprise 40th birthday party for another neighbor, John. Said bus backed into our driveway from the alley and parked in front of our house to pick us all up. Those of you who know where we live know that's quite a feat. The surprise was a success and a good time was had by all (as far as I know, anyway).

That's Aaron line dancing

Saturday we had a rehearsal in the morning and went to a late brunch/early dinner. That evening we went to an engagement party, and the bride and groom asked Aaron to officiate their wedding! Look how cute this shit is:

I want to remind you that the 40/40 Challenge started today, but it's not too late to join in. I did manage to get to the gym and get in my 40 minutes (and I tacked on 10 more for the hell of it).

40 minutes of exercise for 40 days

And I have another different kind of challenge/Lent idea for you. My friend Michelle shared it on her Facebook page and I'm totally going to try it. Confession: I haven't done it today but if I do two tomorrow I'll be happy.

Who's with me?