Category Archives: Restaurants

I Sound Like the Grinch

Posted on December 7, 2009 | 4 comments

Happy Monday? Yes, it’s a question. I’m having a rough day. I slept terribly last night (probably because my body’s schedule is all mixed up) and am dragging at work.

But, I think tonight the hubby and I are going to decorate the apartment for Christmas. Usually, I’m soo on top of this – I start decorating as soon as Thanksgiving ends. With my recent crazy schedule, our holiday decorating has been pushed to the wayside.

And in the spirit of the season, my company department is hosting a potluck holiday gathering later in the month. That’s all fine and good, but they are also asking requiring that everyone who attends participates in a secret santa! What?! Mandatory Secret Santa?!!

Not only that, but it’s not just the get a generic gift and throw it in a bag and we all pick deal, we actually get assigned a person. I’ve only been with the company for about 6 months and am nowhere close to knowing everyone in my department. I know that sounds weird, but it’s a large organization and we have multiple locations. So I’m kind of freaked out about having to buy a gift for a specific person. Worse yet, what if I get a guy?! Girls can be fairly simple: a nice candle, some lotion, a pretty decoration. But I have a hard enough time buying gifts for my husband and father, there’s no need to throw in a complete male stranger too! I hope I draw a girl.

Does your office do Secret Santa? What is the best Secret Santa gift you’ve received or given? Help I need some ideas!

So that’s my dilemma of the day. I know, I sound like the Grinch, but I like getting gifts for people who mean something to me and are a part of my life and getting a gift for someone I don’t know just feels fake and forced. Furthermore, I really don’t want a gift from someone I don’t know. Awkward.

Enough grinch-talk for today. Now on to yesterday’s eats!

I started breakfast out right. Katie and Kate stayed at my apartment and Kate’s husband Eli headed up our way for breakfast on Sunday morning. I took them to the Yorkville Creperie, right around the corner. This place is pretty new and I hope it sticks around. I made my own crepe and it included: banana, strawberry, nutella and granola!

Lunch in the afternoon was light because of my deliciously filling crepe. I just had an apple with peanut butter and some tea.

I spent my Sunday doing laundry and cleaning the apartment. I really wanted to meet my friend at the Craftacular event downtown, but I was just spent after my L.A. trip and night out with friends. Instead, I listened to the Holiday Sounds station on the t.v. while I did my housework. It put me in the holiday mood and I decided we need to get our decorations up asap. Tonight for sure!

EDIT: I have to edit this post because of the comment my friend Jess made about the t.v. in my photo, pointing out that the “fun fact” on top says that Barbie’s measurements in real life would be: 39 – 18 – 33. So funny that I snapped a pic of the t.v. with that on there. I agree with Jess – little girls should not be aspiring to be Barbie’s size. In real life, according to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, Barbie “would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate.” Many claim Barbie wouldn’t even be able to stand up in real life.

Here are some Barbie-related news stories and sites that I found after thinking about and researching Barbie a bit:

Ruth Handler, Whose Barbie Gave Dolls Curves, Dies at 85
What Would a Real Life Barbie Look Like?
Editorial Observer; The Evolution of Women’s Roles, Chronicled in the Life of a Doll
Barbie – Wikipedia
Schoolgirl becomes unlikely feminist icon in Russia

Researching some of the Barbie details and arguments was interesting – I may have to look into it a little further later!

If you have a little girl, does she play with Barbie? I did.

For dinner, I was lazy tired yet again, and made some Campbell’s Homestyle soup and had two pickles.

My little dessert afterwards hit the spot:

I tried to go to bed early, but it was not happening. Before I went to bed, I threw some food into the crock pot which I finally brought up from the basement. It should be cooking all day today, so hopefully I’ll have a nice meal all ready later tonight.

What’s your favorite crock pot dish?

4 Comments

Posted in Holidays, Restaurants, Uncategorized

There’s No Place Like Home

Posted on December 6, 2009 | 6 comments

I’m back in NY and I’m exhausted! The last 4-5 days have been c-r-a-z-y and I am ready for some downtime. I’m going to just give some highlights from the past couple of days, or else this post will get out of control. When I left off, we had just wrapped up our first day in L.A. (Wednesday). Thursday and Friday were full 8-hour days of training and then we went to dinner on Thursday night.

THURSDAY

Here’s an overview of Thursday’s eats:

Gingerbread latte with soy milk and an apple bran muffin from Starbucks for breakfast.

For lunch we went to a vegetarian Indian restaurant called Samosa House and I had their lunch plate. The only things I remember are the Soy Tikki Masala and the Curried Cauliflower. Everything was pretty decent and very filling.

My bad snacks during our training! Eeks. The training host had TONS of junk food available in the kitchen. I like to think that I did pretty well only having these.

For dinner we went to a tapas place in Venice Beach called Primitivo and it was delicious. We shared this salad, which was made up of spinach, goat cheese, apple, walnuts and dates. Amazing.

Next up was a dish with these little potato, egg and cheese morsels. The red sauce was salsa-esque and a bit spicy.

And lastly a steak dish with pommes frites! I was a meat-eater that night apparently. This was amazing. YUM!

We left the restaurant at a fairly decent hour – probably around 10pm (1 am EST) – and I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. Exhausted!

FRIDAY

We woke up bright and early on Friday to head into the office and check work email before training started. I must say that this was a lovely sight to see in the morning:

We headed into the office and picked up some breakfast along the way.

Organic blueberry yogurt with granola, a plain coffee and a banana. The granola was particularly yummy.

For our last lunch in L.A. we went to a place called Tender Greens. This “small” salad was filled with spinach, goat cheese and candied pecans. This lunch spot was insane – they churn out salads like a machine.

The rest of Friday was busy with finishing training and heading to the airport for my return flight. I grabbed a turkey sandwich from Starbucks for dinner, but it was camera-shy. Then I hopped on the red-eye and promptly fell asleep for almost the entire flight.

On a sad note: We did not get a chance to run at all when we were in L.A. But, to be honest, I don’t feel all that bad about it. We were on such a hectic schedule, I literally don’t know where we could have squeezed it in. So I’m not beating myself up about it.

If you don’t get to workout during your travels, do you let it go or feel guilty?

SATURDAY

I got home around 5:45 a.m. and hopped in a cab, came home and went back to bed and slept for a few more hours. When I finally felt human again, I got up and had some breakfast.

Kashi cereal with granola and skim milk, a coffee and a water. I have been a coffee fiend lately!! But I really needed it.

For the rest of the day I cleaned up the apartment a bit and prepped for my two friends who were coming into town in the late afternoon. Kate and Eli and Katie arrived around 4pm. Eli headed out to meet one of his friends and us girls had some quality girly chat time. We made dinner reservations for 7:30, but we were all pretty hungry, so I threw together a little snack plate while we sipped on some wine.

Triscuits, cheddar cheese, grape tomatoes, apple and carrots. It was a great reviver. Then a little while later we headed out into the… SNOW!! The first snow in NYC.

For dinner, we went to Pangea on 2nd between 11th and 12th. They have a very eclectic menu and I ended up getting the Vegetarian Assaggio – it was a mix of grilled veggies, a quinoa pilaf, humus and a balsamic drizzle. I really loved it and ate it all.

Kate and Katie both liked their meals as well. We left Pangea and went to two other bars for a drink at each and headed home pretty early. Here we are:

I’m so glad they came to visit! We haven’t all hung out together in a while. Even though I was a tad bit tired from my L.A. trip and red-eye flight , I think I held it together pretty well.

I have to say that it’s so nice to be home and have some quiet down time. Although I do have to do lots of laundry and clean the apartment a bit, I’m still just so happy to be settled. There really is no place like home!!

Do you feel the same way when you return from a trip?

Have a great Sunday all – sorry for the crazy long post.

6 Comments

Posted in Restaurants, Travel, Uncategorized

Lagging in L.A.

Posted on December 3, 2009 | 7 comments

Good morning from L.A.! It’s Thursday and this week has flown by (in some ways literally – with a flight to Cali!). We have been going non-stop since we got here yesterday and it doesn’t look like things are going to slow down anytime soon.

I was up at 4:00 am yesterday, in the car by 4:45 and on the plane by 7:30. Before I left the house I had some walnuts and raisins and then at the airport I drank a big cup of coffee before our flight left. I was afraid to really fall asleep on the plane because I knew we had meetings to go to once we got to L.A. and I didn’t want to look groggy and gross. Here’s my large java:

I was able to use the free Wi-Fi for a lot of the flight, but then the computer started making my head hurt, so I signed off. Virgin America is a REALLY nice airline. My only complaint was that I was soo hot throughout the flight. I was thrilled to get off and breathe fresh air.

We arrived around 11 am Cali time and headed for lunch to meet up with a potential web designer for our company. Navigating in L.A. was a little tricky. We were driving a truck that my co-worker borrowed from her friend who lives in L.A. and we were armed with some maps, but it wasn’t easy. I’m used to NYC where it’s a grid and generally the numbers go up and down and East and West. Not as straightforward in L.A. We got to the lunch site, only to find that it no longer serves lunch! So then we had to make our way to a new location.

We finally made it and it was well worth it. We met up with the designer at a really cute outdoor mall and farmers market. It’s soo funny to see Christmas decorations in Cali when it’s 70 degrees out and sunny.

We ate at The Farm and I had a delicious blackened chicken wrap. It had grilled chicken, bacon, roasted tomatoes, avocado, etc. It was delicious – a tad on the spicy side – but I was so hungry at that point that anything was bound to taste good.

I did pretty well on my wrap and then the three of us also had some late-afternoon coffee.

After lunch we headed to the training place for a quick informal meeting. The real training begins today.

By the time we left the training place yesterday Tiffany (co-worker) and I were both pooped. We were even a little delirious from our long day. But we still needed dinner and we thought nothing would perk us up like a little Mexican and margaritas!

They were huge margaritas! We had salsa, chips and guacamole and then I had a chicken quesadilla (I know lots of meat). Here are a few pics (the first is the view from our hotel room):

This last pic is funny because we look sooo exhausted – we had been up for almost 22 hours – we were definitely lagging! Also, look at the size of the margarita compared to our heads. This is my co-worker Tiffany btw – now you have a face to go with the name. 🙂

Ok off to training ALL day. Have a great day all!

7 Comments

Posted in Restaurants, Travel, Uncategorized

Is it Really Monday?

Posted on November 30, 2009 | 4 comments

Good morning. It’s Monday – ugh! Back to the grind again. I promised a race recap yesterday, but I didn’t end up having a chance to post at all. So here it goes:

2009 Troy Turkey Trot
Since high school, my friend Lauren and I have run the Troy Turkey Trot together every Thanksgiving. From 2006 through 2008, I took a little break and didn’t run it. This year was my triumphant return!

Lauren picked me up on Thursday morning around 8:30 and brought my race packet with her. We headed into Troy in search of parking. This year, the race course was changed a bit and the starting place was different. We found a spot and started jogging in the direction of the old start. After jogging for about 5 minutes, we realized everyone else was running in the opposite direction. So we turned around and followed the masses to the new start. Oops! 🙂

After finding the start, we hung out for a bit and ran into a bunch of people from high school. We also met up with our friend Kelly, who was running the race unofficially, or as a “bandit.” We headed to the starting line to find her dad and a few other of her family members. Miraculously, we found them standing at about the 9:30 minute mile pace area.

We started chatting and then before we knew it the race started. It was PACKED!! Apparently, this was the largest ever Troy Turkey Trot. We were all crammed in trying to move, but it was a slow start. I had a slight goal in the back of my mind – to beat 24 minutes, so I started getting a little annoyed with the slow start.

Lauren and I tried to stick together and manuever through people, but it just wasn’t happening. So after about 5 minutes, we got split up.

In general, I will say this was a frustrating race. It might have been less so if we had started closer to the actual starting line and I didn’t have to spend the majority of the beginning of the race trying to weave my way through runners.

I was concentrating so much on not running over people, that I was shocked to find myself at the halfway turn-around point! I had already been running for a little longer than 12 minutes. That’s when I realized that I needed to pick it up a bit.

I started increasing my speed and then all of a sudden I saw a HUGE hill in front of me. Everyone around me starting groaning and some even cursed in anger. This was certainly a new addition to the course.

I made it up the hill and was finally almost done. My watch time was very different from the clock time, so I tried to pay attention only to my watch. It was getting close to 24 minutes, so I knew we were almost done. I spotted the finish line and starting kicking it in and sprinting to the finish. I knew it was going to be very close… and it was. I finished the race in 24:03. Sooo close to breaking 24 minutes!

I felt great after the race and was shocked at how quickly it went by. I can’t wait to run another 5k soon and try to break 24 minutes again.

Has your 5k time improved since running longer races, like 10k, half marathon, marathons?

Here’s a photo from the finish of myself, Lauren, Stephen and Stephanie. I look like a midget next to these tall peeps!

So that was my race recap – now I’ll try to give a consolidated recap of Saturday night and Sunday.

Saturday night I hung out with Becky and Josh and Chrissie and Dan. Becky, Chrissie and I went to high school together. We tried a new restaurant in Saratoga called The Irish Times. We started off with some appetizers, including nachos, spring rolls and wings. Here are the nachos and spring rolls:

My dinner was a burger (boring) and the picture I took came out terrible, so I’m leaving it out. After dinner, we headed to The Parting Glass for a few drinks. Ok – maybe more than a few:

And then we marvelled at how mini my hands look compared to Josh’s.

It was a fun night in Saratoga!

Sunday morning I was up fairly early, so I headed to the mall to finish up some shopping crowd-free.

Did you shop during the long weekend? Or will you be partaking in Cyber Monday deals?

When I came home I had a multi-grain English muffin with peanut butter and banana. Lauren and I had planned to go running in the early afternoon, so this was also my running fuel.

Around 1:00 Lauren came to my parent’s house and we headed out for a nice run. The weather upstate was gorgeous! A little brisk, but not freezing. We probably ran about 5.5 miles. I haven’t used mapmyrun.com to calculate the route we took yet, but we finished at around 52 minutes. We also challenged ourselves by taking on two big hills during the run. It felt great to finish.

After our run, I had this for lunch and then again for dinner! So only one picture:

My mom made this soup and it was FANTASTIC!! I will definitely be making it. She got the recipe from the Food Network, here it is:

Tortellini Tomato Spinach Soup

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup minced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
4 to 6 cups chicken broth (can also use vegetable broth)
1 14 oz. can whole tomatoes, crushed through your fingers (I used a little more)
1 9 oz. package fresh tortellini or dried tortellini
1/4 cup of red wine
Salt and Pepper to taste
Dash of Parsley and Basil
6 oz. package fresh baby spinach – tear into pieces
Parmesan Cheese

In a 3 quart soup pot, heat olive oil over med. high heat and saute onion for several minutes then add garlic stirring for few minutes then add broth, wine and tomatoes, parsley, basil, salt and pepper; turn heat up to high and bring to a boil – add tortellini and cook according to package instructions. When tortellini is almost done, add spinach. Cook for a few minutes until spinach is wilted. Once you dish soup into bowls, shave parmesan cheese over the top and serve.

It takes about 10 minutes to prep. and approx. 20 to 30 minutes to cook.

It was soo yummy. Bill had some of it when he came to pick me up to head back to NYC and he said it was very good as well. Then we set off for home. Along the way, I don’t know if my allergies were acting up or what, but I started to feel a cold coming on. EEEKS! I hate being sick.

When we got home, I took some Severe Cold Sudafed, a vitamin c tablet and ate a clementine. Then I went straight to bed! This morning, I am feeling much better (knock on wood). Hopefully, if it was a cold, I kept it at bay. But I have a feeling it was just my allergies.

What are your “secret'” tips for killing a cold quick?

Happy Monday blog world!

4 Comments

Posted in Recipes, Restaurants, Running, Uncategorized

Whirlwind Weekend

Posted on November 22, 2009 | 8 comments

It’s Sunday afternoon and I finally have nothing to do. Well, that’s not true – I could be doing laundry, cleaning, unpacking, etc. – but instead I chose to upload photos from this weekend and blog. It was such a crazy weekend, I really don’t know where to begin.

Friday afternoon I left work around 3:30 and headed up to Albany on the train with my friend Rachael. Our friend Stephanie picked us up from the station and we headed to Beff’s for dinner. Before we even got there, I knew I HAD to have the nachos. I was ravenous. The nachos at Beff’s are amazing. So we all decided to share a huge thing of nachos and then have side salads as well. Here is Rach getting ready for the nachos.

What is your biggest “can’t say no” food? I love nachos so much, I can’t deny myself.

And here are our nachos and small salads (not so small – nothing at Beff’s is small really).

Needless to say we were totally FULL by the end of our meal. We called it an early night and headed back to my parents.

Our friend Kelly’s bridal shower was Saturday at noon, so I had a lighter breakfast to tide me over: some cranberry bread my mom made and some apple cider.

It was a good thing I didn’t eat a heavy breakfast because this was my lunch at the shower:

Deliciousness – salad, pasta salad, beef medallions, fruit salad, penne with vodka, steamed veggies and roasted potatoes. I think I got almost everything available at the buffet. And this was my plate afterwards:

A job well done – I think! But then of course there was some dessert to be had. Amazing, amazing desserts:

I ate almost all of the desserts on my plate. No after picture was taken.

The shower was so beautiful and a ton of fun. We left the shower, ran a few errands, relaxed for a bit and then Rachael and I headed back out to Buca Di Beppo to meet some of the girls for “pre New Moon” drinks. We had some calamari there, as well as some wine, but I forgot to take food pics. So here is a group pic instead!

Kim, Becky, Lauren, Rachael and me!

We left Buca and headed over to the mall to wait in line for New Moon. My New Moon reaction: I definitely liked it better than the first movie, I think Bella and Edward can still be a little too cheesy, but overall it was pretty decent. I also heard they already finished shooting Eclipse. Maybe we won’t have to wait a year for the next one. Update: Just read that Eclipse is coming out June 2010. Not a full year – good!

If you saw New Moon – what is your reaction? Thumbs up, thumbs down?

I also have to be honest and say that the Sour Patch Watermelon candies were calling my name at the theater, and I gave in:

We left the movie and by this point, it had been a pretty long day. We met up with a few other friends for one more drink. I sipped on some water and a diet coke (I needed some caffeine). I think we got back to my parent’s house around 1:00 a.m. So tired!

And finally we get to Sunday. I woke up and had some more of the cranberry bread (I’ll post the recipe tomorrow) for breakfast. Then we headed over to Lauren’s house to meet her new kitty cat and see Tera’s son Jackson. It was such a cutefest – I have to post a few pics. This is Miss Scotia!

And this is Jackson – growing up so fast!

Then Lauren’s sister came over with her little boy: Riley!

The cuteness factor was off the chart! They are both growing like little weeds. Pretty soon it was time for Rach and I to head back to NYC on the train. We got to the station and I was famished. I ended up getting a pre-made Turkey sandwich on Rye bread and a piece of chocolate for the trip.

And my gosh – that was just the longest, most all-over-the-place post ever! Sorry. What a busy, crazy and fun weekend. Now I wish I had a rest and recovery day before heading back to work on Monday.

How do you “recover” after a busy weekend? Any tips or tricks to feel more rested on Monday morning?

Now I’m off to unpack and probably head to bed early tonight. I MAY try to hit the gym in the a.m. We’ll see how that works out…

Have a great Sunday!

8 Comments

Posted in Restaurants, Uncategorized

A Bloggy Dinner in the City

Posted on November 18, 2009 | 14 comments

You know the drill – it’s Wednesday, but my Tuesday night recap comes first. After work last night, I headed to Candle Cafe on the UES to meet up with Megan and Chelsea, two other local bloggers, and Darien and Courtney – local blog readers! I’m constantly reading Megan and Chelsea’s sites for interesting recipes and running tips.

It was so nice to get together with these welcoming and interesting ladies. I really enjoyed my meal: the Ginger-Miso Stir Fry. And everyone elses’ dinner looked and smelled amazing as well. Here’s my dinner and the two other bloggies snapping away!

Aren’t we so cute?!

(This photo courtesy of Megan – thank you!)

Our convo was all over the place: food, running, blogging, reading blogs, restaurants in the city, etc. It was nice to hear everyone’s perspectives and finally meet Megan and Chelsea in person. Hopefully we can all do it again soon and maybe even plan a run in the near future!

I left our dinner party pretty full and tired. I headed home and watched the hubby pack for his trip to Utica and then headed to bed early. I can’t believe Thanksgiving is almost here… as is Bill’s Birthday!!

This morning’s breakfast was oatmeal with FlaxPlus Granola, pumpkin butter and blueberries.

Lunch was leftovers from the Sunday night (it was time to finish them up): rice and beans with onion and corn. It actually really hit the spot. I also had some Greek yogurt (honey flavor) with oats. I’ve never tried the honey flavor before (I don’t know why), but the hubby picked it up for me and so I gave it a whirl. Pretty tasty.

Snacks for the afternoon will be carrots, two clementines and probably a few chippers.

I’m hitting up the gym tonight to add some POTM miles to my list and to train for the Turkey Trot, which is not so far away! Dreaded treadmill here I come!!

Happy to see this headline: USDA Backs Rewarding Schools Serving Healthy Food

Wary of this headline: New U.S. Guidelines: Routine Mammograms Start at 50 (instead of 40)

14 Comments

Posted in Bloggers, Restaurants, Uncategorized

It’s “Tricky”

Posted on November 13, 2009 | Leave a comment

Wow – how did it get to be Friday night already?! Let me start with yesterday’s workout after work. I tried another class at my gym called “Urban Rebounding.” Basically, you’re on a mini trampoline the whole time while doing other exercises, with and without weights. It was a really great workout.

My only mistake was taking this class the day after taking “Power Sculpting.” I was already hurting pretty bad and the Rebounding class just intensified the pain. It’s good pain though right?! I think I’m going to try to work at least one of these classes into my weekly schedule. It was nice to mix it up and “trick” my body.

The instructor talked about one thing I really need to work on and that’s continually changing up my routine. He reminded us that when you do the same exercise for too long, without any sort of variation, your body becomes used to it and finds ways to cut corners and do less work. Well my body was certainly stunned into submission the past two nights. Running tomorrow will feel like a breeze.

How do you switch it up and “trick” your body? Do you ever become bored with your routine – how do you spice things up?

I felt like I ate a ton of grains yesterday, so I was really craving some veggies for dinner. I had a HUGE (not kidding – out of control) salad for dinner. It was soo big, I had to put it in a giant plastic bowl, which doesn’t look pretty, but served its purpose. My salad contained: lettuce, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, cheddar cheese, raisins and walnuts with balsamic drizzled over top.

Lovely plastic bowl right? And notice the Boilermaker plug (glass)?

For dessert I mixed a ton of stuff thrown together: pumpkin bread, flax plus granola with pumpkin, pumpkin butter (yay I finally found some!) and blueberries. Obviously the theme was pumpkin. It was so yummy, but not so pretty.

This morning I awoke in pain (literally I was groaning) and decided that more pumpkin would surely help. Hence, my breakfast of oatmeal, flax plus granola with pumpkin, bananas and… pumpkin butter!! MMMMM!

When I got to work I was pleasantly surprised when I remembered we were having a “Health Fair” today! Hurray. Unfortunately, there wasn’t all that much health-related stuff going on. A few gyms touting their discounts, local banks trying to get you to switch to them, and two people giving massages. Slightly disappointed. But then……. we found the smoothy station!! I had this delicious banana and mango smoothy made with low-fat yogurt. I thoroughly enjoyed it – to the point where I got brain freeze from drinking it too fast.

The fun for the day was not over yet! Shortly after the fair, one of my old co-workers (who happens to work right across the street) emailed to ask if I wanted to grab lunch. I was planning on popping out for a salad, so I said yes! We decided to hit up Chipotle. I had a yummy chicken burrito bowl with: chicken, rice, black beans, pico de gallo, cheese and a tiny bit of sour cream. The best thing about Chipotle is that it’s a CLEAN FOOD eatery. And I don’t mean they mop the floors often. What I mean is that Chipotle uses “unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added hormone free, organic, and artisanal” ingredients. Their motto is “food with integrity.” And for that, they are a good choice in my book.

That lunch sustained me for a while – but I couldn’t finish all of it. So much food. Later in the afternoon I had some Greek yogurt (pineapple flavor – my fave) with oats and it was just what I wanted.

And then miraculously it was the end of the day! Once I got home, I planned to make an omelet, but found my omelet skills are lacking (Bill usually makes them) and instead ended up with scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, grape tomatoes and green pepper. I added a side of salsa for dipping and a glass of wine and my meal was complete.

Now it’s time for me to relax, drink my wine, maybe catch up on The Soup and a few other shows, and call it an early night. Sometimes Fridays are the best! Enjoy your night.

Finding the Perfect Parade Perch

Posted on November 6, 2009 | 4 comments

Today was a good day for three reasons: 1) It’s Friday! 2) Bill is finally coming home, and 3) The Yankees Ticker Tape Parade!!

This morning I tried a new breakfast concoction that didn’t go so well: oatmeal, vanilla Greek yogurt and peanut butter. What was I thinking right? I was thinking I really like all three, so why not put them together? It wasn’t great. What are some things you like to mix with your oatmeal?

I ate it, but didn’t enjoy it very much.

I headed to work and as soon as I got off the subway in downtown Manhattan (right near Bowling Green) I was bombarded by Yankee fans – already! At 8:30 a.m. I made it into work, but could hear the cheers and yelling from my office. My co-workers and I could barely stand it – we wanted to go out so bad!

Finally, around 10:30 we gave in and headed downstairs. I was happy I brought my new Canon Rebel XSi to work with me today. I was unhappy however, when we got outside and saw that it was packed and we could barely see a thing. Being 5’1 is a terrible disadvantage in times like these.

And I had a particular reason why I really wanted some decents pics: Bill was stuck in training in Westchester today and was so upset he couldn’t make it to the parade. He loves the Yankees! So I felt like I needed to capture the event for him.

I was becoming desperate and looking everywhere for a higher spot. Then I saw a bunch of guys climbing a fence to get into a windowsill about 1 story high. There was still some room left up there with them. I turned to my co-workers and told them I was going up. I turned to the group of guys and asked ever so nicely if they could hoist me up. And they did!

Here are some pics from the parade. I’ll post a lot more on Picasa.

It was soo crazy and I was thrilled with my spot. But eventually I saw my co-workers kind of motioning that we needed to go. Afterall, we were technically “working.”

Slight problem. Almost immediately after I got up on the ledge, I wondered “how the heck am I going to get down?” It was a pretty big drop. My co-workers (Tara, Tiffany and Reena) came over to help and Tiffany offered to “catch me.” I could definitely see her “catching me” ending up with me landing on her head and crushing her. I hesistated and then this 6’5 guy (who happened to be friends with all the guys on the ledge and saw my dilemma) came over and I basically fell on him to get down.

My descent was kind of hysertical, but at the same time kind of heart-warming because all these unknown New Yorkers below me stepped up to help get me down. New Yorkers are the best! But I do have a slight war wound from my attempt to scale the building:

It was definitely worth it!

After I scrambled down from my ledge, we went for lunch at a tiny hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant called Tajin. I had a chicken burrito and it was yummy:

The rest of the work day was uneventful. Then after work I headed home to finally see my long-lost hubby! I heated up the leftover pasta from last night for our dinner tonight.

We’re going to a wedding in Albany tomorrow night and then I’m watching my friend Stephanie run a 15k in Schenectady on Sunday. Hopefully I can find time to blog as well… but we’ll see.

4 Comments

Posted in Restaurants, Uncategorized

Back Into the Swing

Posted on November 3, 2009 | 2 comments

Good morning. It’s Tuesday and I’ve decided that today is the day I get back into running and working out regularly. The past few weeks have been a bit hectic and I have been slacking on working out. Tonight I am hitting the gym and plan to run at least 4 miles.

This morning I started with some oatmeal with agave nectar and raisins. Something about the fall just makes me want warm oatmeal in the morning.

Breakfast_11.3.09

Now I have to recap a bit from last night. Last night I met up with Katie for dinner and another book reading. We headed to Republic in Union Square and I had the Wonton Broth Noodles, which had wontons filled with shrimp, pork and vegetables, and also had glass noodles, cabbage and chinese greens. It was very good, but I forgot to take a picture!

After dinner we headed to Barnes and Noble in Union Square to hear Augusten Burroughs read from his new book: You Better Not Cry. I’ve only read Running with Scissors previously. The portion he read was hysterical and he got really into it – doing different voices and everything. The book is a compilation of short stories about the holidays and the crazy things that go, the drama, etc. He’s based a lot of his books on his life and this one is no different. Here are a few pictures from the event:

Burroughs

Burroughs2

Tonight it’s back to the gym and also back to eating at home. I can’t believe how much I’ve been eating out. I try to be aware of what I’m choosing when eating at restaurants and now I have a handy tool to help me out…more on that later!

Question: Do you have any tricks or tips you like to use when dining out to try to eat healthy?

2 Comments

Posted in Books, Restaurants, Uncategorized

Halloween and NYC Marathon

Posted on November 1, 2009 | 1 comment

What a busy weekend! I started Saturday morning off with some oatmeal with agave nectar and sliced bananas.

Then I decide to go for a nice medium run. It was a balmy 65 degrees outside and the East River Esplanade was packed! I figured that if 40,000 people were going to run 26.2 miles the next day, the least I could do was run 6 miles. I still don’t have a running watch, so I’m not sure how fast I ran it, but it felt pretty good. It was both liberating and a bit annoying not to know how fast I was going. That was my longest run since my marathon on October 11th and I definitely think I need to be doing more 6 mile plus runs.

After my run I finished up my costume and cleaned the house a bit in preparation for my overnight guest – Jenny! When she arrived we headed down to Little Italy for some pasta with our marathoning friend, Neil. We went to Florios on Grand Street and I tried some of their famous Penne Al Vodka. It was delish!

After dinner it was off to a Halloween party where Jenny, Rachael and I were: Snap, Crackle and Pop from the Rice Krispies!

We headed home from the party at a decent hour so we would be well-rested for marathon watching on Sunday. And the marathon on Sunday did not disappoint – it was CRAZY!

The first spot we saw our friend Neil running was at mile 17 on the Upper East Side. It was super packed, so I could only snap a poor picture of him. He was motoring along. Next we caught him at around mile 25 where everything was crazy and loud. After he passed us there, we headed for the finish line to find him in the sea of runners. He looked tired, but also happy!