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I Love My Garmin!!

Posted on January 2, 2010 | 13 comments

Happy Saturday! I’m not feeling too great today. But first let me recap the rest of yesterday.

After breakfast yesterday, we cleaned up a bit and then I headed out for a run along the East River to test out my new Garmin. It was 42 degrees outside which sounded absolutely warm to me. I have a few “usual routes” that I run along the river, each with a different distance. I set out to run what I thought was my 4.7 mile run: from the apartment down to about 64 street near the dog park and then up to the big dock that juts out, probably around 100-110 street.

I started out my run and immediately  was looking at my watch. Then I decided to just let things go for a bit and see what happened. At 1 mile it beeped at me and I looked down to see my speed. I love the little mile alerts. Here are my run stats:

Mile 1: 8:29
Mile 2: 8:24
Mile 3: 8:50 (oops – darn stairs)
Mile 4: 8:28
Mile 5: 8:33
.2 miles: 2:05
Total mileage: 5.2 in 44:52

I feel like I ran this much faster than I normally do because I had the Garmin. To be fair, I did run faster at one point when this boy passed me acting all cool with his keys jangling annoyingly (I ran sans iPod for some reason) and then shortly after he stopped to walk, so I passed him and turned around and then he turned around too and was jingly right behind me again, obviously trying to pass me for the second time. Didn’t happen. Wow – I think this Garmin and my sense of competitiveness could be a dangerous combination.

It actually felt like a tough run – I think because I wasn’t 100% and because of the large breakfast I ate – I was burping sausage for the first half of the run. After my run, I proceeded to cough incessantly for a while. Maybe I pushed it.

When I got home from my run I snacked on some Chobani yogurt with granola and some tea to calm my raging throat.

A little while later, before we started our cleaning, I also had a Larabar.

Oh my – look at my awful nails. This flavor was okay. It wasn’t as bad as Ginger Snap, but Pecan Pie is still my favorite of the ones I’ve tried to date.

For the remainder of the afternoon the Hubby and I cleaned the apartment and put away all the Christmas decorations. There is still more cleaning and laundry to do today. Boo.

For dinner, I decided I needed some veggies after my pizza dinner the night before. I made a giant salad with Mediterranean lettuce, carrots, cheddar cheese, walnuts, raisins, and cucumber. I covered it with some balsamic vinegar. I also had a side of blackberries.

Up close

And then I finished the night with a nice glass of Cabernet.

I am definitely a red wine girl – I used to be white, but in the past few years I’ve switched.

If you drink wine, do you like red or white? What’s your favorite kind? I’ve been liking Pino Noir lately.

I’m hoping that maybe by later this afternoon I’ll start to feel better, but my throat is killing me right now and I’m feeling exhausted. Have a good Saturday all.

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Great Start to 2010!

Posted on January 1, 2010 | 5 comments

Good morning – happy 2010! This is going to be a quick post, I just felt the need to write my first 2010 post. Our New Year’s Eve was very low-key, per my choice. The Hubby claims he wanted to go out and party in the city, but secretly I think he enjoyed chilling at home.

I had planned to make risotto, but then Hubby told me he doesn’t like risotto and actually really just wanted to order pizza. I said okay to that because it meant much less work for me and I could just hang out and relax.

I didn’t take any pics last night – I just wanted to unwind and not worry about it. We ended up watching a slew of movies, both good and bad: Stepbrothers (very funny), District 9 (weird), and Body of Lies (a bit disappointing). And then of course we watched the ball drop and had some champagne to celebrate the New Year. It was quiet and relaxing and I was very happy with it.

This morning when we woke up, Hubby decided to make breakfast. What a great start to 2010!! Before breakfast I took another Zicam and made a glass of Emergen-C.

And then came the Hubby-made breakfast:

Scrambled eggs (with my requisite side of ketchup), venison sausage (yes, you read that right – more to come on that in a few days), honey double fiber English muffins with white chocolate wonderful peanut butter and banana, with a coffee and side of Emergen-C.

It was delicious and a great start to 2010! Today our plans are to do a big clean of the apartment (it really needs it), and I plan to go for a run along river because it’s a balmy 40 degrees outside! Hubby will be hitting the gym instead. I don’t feel entirely 100% yet, but I think my self-medicating has been helping. I’m going to continue with my methods.

I hope you had a wonderful New Year’s Eve and that your 2010 has started off great as well – I have to say it was pretty nice not to start the new year off with a hangover. 🙂

Have a great day!

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Happy Snowy New Year’s Eve!

Posted on December 31, 2009 | 14 comments

Happy NYE everyone! Guess what – I have to work on this day too and everyone else seems to have it off. Oh well, such is life. I’m sure the office will be very quiet. And it looks super wintery outside with lots of snow.

The good news is that today is a short work day – I’m out at 3:00 p.m.; the bad news is that I fear I may be getting a cold. But, I am taking all the necessary preventative measures, here is my arsenal of weapons:

Not pictured is the chewable Zycam (gross) and vitamin c tablet I took this morning. There is nothing I hate more than being sick. So, as soon as my throat started feeling scratchy last night I was on high alert.

Speaking of last night, here are yesterday’s eats:

Breakfast was boring old Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with skim milk – not almond milk in the house. I originally had apple cider when I took this photo and then I tried it and realized it had gone bad, so I switched to orange juice.  

When packing my lunch yesterday, things were looking bleak. No leftovers and not too much to choose from. So I ended up making some tunafish and bringing it in to put on Reduced Fat Triscuit crackers. I had two clementines as well.

Afternoon snacks were walnuts and raisins and a strawberry Yoplait yogurt with granola. I was really missing my Greek yogurt. Darn you bad Oikos yogurt!

Toward late afternoon I started to notice the scratchiness in my throat, as well as some congestion in my nose. Thoughts of hitting the gym started to fade fast, although in retrospect it might have been good for me to sweat out some of those bad germs.

Around 4:00 p.m. my boss told me to go home – not because I was sick or anything – just because it was soo dead. On the way home I picked up a few things to make dinner. I was in the mood for some comfort food. So here’s what I made:

I adapted this recipe  (Rotini and Cheese with Broccoli and Ham) from Cooking Light, to be:

Penne and Cheese with Broccoli and Sausage
Yields 3 servings

Ingredients
2  quarts water
1  cups  uncooked penne (about 8 ounces corkscrew pasta)
1/2  (10-ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli
1/8  cup  all-purpose flour
1  cups  fat-free milk
3/4 cup cubed cheese (cheddar)
1  teaspoon  Dijon mustard
1/2  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  garlic powder
1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
1/2  cup  chopped vegetarian sausage

Preparation
Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add pasta; cook 5 minutes. Add broccoli; cook an additional 5 minutes or until pasta is done; drain.

While pasta cooks, lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Place flour in a medium saucepan; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat 8 minutes or until mixture is thick, stirring frequently. At the same time, microwave vegetarian sausage and cut up into bite size pieces.

Remove from heat; stir in cheese and next 4 ingredients (cheese through pepper). Combine pasta mixture, cheese sauce, and sausage.

I really liked this dish and the sauce, even though it’s not the healthiest of choices. Hubby liked it as well. I will definitely make this one again.

After dinner, I made some tea to calm my throat a bit.

This flavor was decent, but what I really wish I had was this:

I can’t find this flavor anywhere! I’ve gone to about 5-6 stores in the city and it’s never there. Sadness. I’ve also tried to win this flavor on several blog give-a-ways (but I never win anything) to no avail. But I’ve built this flavor up in my head so much, I’m sure I’ll be disappointed. I just can’t give in and order it online. I won’t.

P.S. – Hubby thinks I have a tea problem. I am always bringing home new flavors and he claims I am bombarding the cupboards with tea. But it’s tea and I love it! (And he secretly does too).

Other evening happenings. Murphy tried on his sweater again…yup it’s definitely still too tight.

He looks like a fat cat in a little sweater. We’re going with dog clothes next year. Bill weighed him last night and he actually weighs less than his norm. He’s usually around 16 pounds, but now he is a svelte 14 pounds.

Hubby and I also watched one of our Netflix movies – UP! I never feel excited to watch Disney kids’ movies, but then he convinces me and I love them. And I loved this movie so much! If you haven’t seen it, you must.

It is stinking adorable and there were definitely moments when I was teary-eyed.

Have you seen UP? What did you think?

Our plans for NYE tonight are going to be very low-key. I don’t feel like fighting city crowds or traffic and not feeling 100% is also adding to my desire to chill. I plan on making us some risotto for dinner (I’ve never made it before), drinking some champagne and maybe some wine, getting a fire going (ok, Hubby will be handling that), and cozying up with my two boys to watch the ball drop on t.v. from our apt.

What are your NYE plans? Has anyone ever done Times Square? Would you ever?

I have no desire. The whole being trapped and not having any bathrooms thing sounds scary. One of Bill’s friends (who shall remain nameless), actually wore a diaper to Times Square once because he wanted to drink. And yes, I think he used it. Gross, right?

Well, wherever you are tonight – I hope you have a very Happy New Years and a great start to 2010! Talk to you next year! 🙂

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Reflections on 2009

Posted on December 30, 2009 | 10 comments

Happy Wednesday morning. Thanks so much to everyone for supporting my 2010 resolutions! It means a lot to me. I think 2010 is going to be an exciting, challenging and fun year. I hope you’ll keep reading and join me for everything.  

As promised, today’s post will be a quick look back at some events from 2009. I started Eat, Read, Run in October 2009, so there’s a lot of stuff that happened earlier in the year that didn’t make it into the blog.  I have to thank Meg for inspiring this “looking back” post. I really loved her Revisit 2009 post and it made me start thinking about my past year. It went a little something like this:

January

  • We rang in the New Year with a party at our friend Chris’s house. It was such a blast and the night even led to a new romance among our friends! Here’s me, Steph and Kelly pre-midnight (so technically last year, I guess – whoops).

  • I also went skiing with my Hubby for the first time in January. Unfortunately, we went to Jiminy Peak during a holiday weekend and it was packed with kids. It was a bit trying at times, but we sure had fun in the lodge! Becky, Dan, Chrissie, Bill and me.

February

  • We put together a fun group bowling outing in upstate New York. Nothing says winter like musty-smelling bowling shoes and beer.

March

  • Our wedding season began in March this past year with Kate Carr’s (now Lee) wedding in Utica, N.Y. Here’s a bunch of us girls with the bride.

  • The wedding festivities continued later that month with Becky’s Bridal Shower at the Franklin Plaza (where Hubby and I got married) in Troy. And look at this, even pre-blogger days I was snapping pictures of my food! My fate was written.

April

  • In April a bunch of girls got together for Becky’s bachelorette party in NYC!!

May

  • And finally in May, Becky and Josh got married!! It was such a great wedding. And I LOVED the food, obviously (more food pictures – hint, hint of what’s to come).

June

  • In June, the wedding theme continued with Chrissie’s Bachelorette Party in Oneonta, N.Y.
  • Toward the end of the month, we also threw my Dad a Surprise Birthday party! This is some of my family digging into the clams. It was a feeding frenzy. I tried a clam for the first time – not bad, but I wasn’t in love like all the rest of them. Look at the crowd!

July

  • We threw a Surprise Graduation Party for Jenny in early July. She was totally surprised – here are some of the girls at the party.

  • Later that weekend, we drove up to Cape Vincent, N.Y. for my Godson Evan’s baptism. Here we are “on stage” – me, Schuyler (Godfather), Stan, Jr. , Kristen and Evan. He is the cutest and he was very good.

  • We also ran the Boilermaker in July. We had a very nice BBQ at Hubby’s parent’s house after the race. It was great. And I got my PR in that race.  

  • Finally, to round out July, we went island camping in Lake George and then stuck around for Log Bay Day! The first photo below is of my giant swollen ankle. I tripped and fell while camping and was nervous my marathon training would be over. Thankfully, it got better quickly (I rested for a while) and got back to training. For Log Bay Day, we essentially hang out all day in log bay in Lake George lounging in the sun…and err, some drinking may be involved. The second photo is our group shot.


August

  • In August we got back to wedding stuff with Chrissie’s Bridal Shower! It was a very hot day in upstate, N.Y., but it was a great time.

September

  • Chrissie and Dan’s Wedding reception followed soon after in September. Here’s a bunch of the girls with the bride!

October

  • Next up, Hubby and I celebrated our 1 Year Anniversary with a trip to a quaint B&B in Connecticut. It was a great weekend away!

  • Toward the end of October, I finally started my blog! I kind of just jumped right in.
  • And at the very end of October, Katie and I went to see John Irving at a Times Talk in New York. It was so much fun!!

November

And since you were around for these months, here’s just a quick recap of November and December.

December

December was busy and fun as well.

And there’s the year in a short review! There are so many other great things and events that happened throughout the year, but I only had so much room and people only deal with rambling for so long. 🙂

What are some of your best 2009 memories! Any special plans for 2010?

In 2010, we already have three weddings lined up. So my 2010 recap may look much like this one! 😉

So now on to the normal stuff – Tuesday’s eats:

Breakfast yesterday was a honey wheat double fiber English muffin. I am loving this flavor. It was covered with peanut butter (a special kind) and banana. Side of light cranberry juice.

This was the special peanut butter. Not exactly healthy, but in moderation I think it’s okay.

Lunch was cucumber and carrots with balsamic vinegar and reduced fat triscuits with Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss flavor cheese.

Snacks for the afternoon were Yoplait strawberry yogurt with granola and a KIND Almond and Coconut bar.

I really enjoyed this bar and will definitely be buying this brand again.

I hit the gym after work and took the Urban Rebounding class again. It’s been a while and my body felt it. The first time I took this class, it seemed much easier. Could the holidays have caught up with me… um yeah.

Hubby decided to take over dinner duties last night and made baked Haddock with spices and I added a side salad to the mix.

Dessert was a little of this:

And lastly, an embarrassing note. I commented on my friend Becky’s blog yesterday about her cat attacking her Christmas tree and claimed that Murphy had never done such a thing. His worst offense was pulling a few ornaments down. Well, Hubby came home to this last night.

What a bad Mr. Murphy!! Do your pets get into the holiday decorations?

Hopefully all the decorations will be put away by the end of this weekend anyway. Have a lovely Wednesday everyone – it’s almost 2010!!

P.S. – Sorry for the massive post.

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Tuesday’s 10 in 2010!

Posted on December 29, 2009 | 14 comments

Happy Tuesday everyone. Ok, it’s about time that I outlined my 2010 goals and/or resolutions. I tend to make half-hearted resolutions, but this year I’ve essentially made my “To-Do List.” The Hubby will tell you how much I love making lists, so here goes:

My 10 To-Do’s in 2010!

1. Stop Biting My Nails: This is a terrible habit I’ve had for years. Just when I think I’ve got the problem kicked, I start biting again. 2010 is the year for it to end.  

2. Become a Real Winter Runner: Usually, my outdoor running days become few and far between from about Dec – March. This year, I want to run continuously throughout the winter. I’ve signed up for a few races to help me with this goal.

3. Eat Cleaner: In 2010, I want to try even harder to eat fewer processed foods. I can certainly tell a difference in how I feel when I eat cleaner foods, but I also think it’s a great way to support greener initiatives and clean food producers.

4. Read More: I go through ups and downs with my reading. When I really love a book, I fly right through it. I need to be more consistent by reading at least 1 book a month. Stay tuned – I’ll be posting more on my long-distance book club idea soon. 😉

5. Be Grateful: The Hubby and I have soo much to be thankful for, but sometimes I forget that. I vow to stop pestering the Hubby about moving upstate and be grateful that we are both healthy, employed and have wonderful families and friends who try to include us in their lives as much as possible even though we’re far away.

6. Shop Less, Save More: This one seems to roll over just about every year, but this year I am going to set a budget for myself for each month.

7. Keep in Touch: We do live kind of far (2.5-4 hours) from most of our family and friends, so you would think I’m on the phone all the time catching up. The truth is – I hate the phone. But I am going to try very hard to get better at returning phone calls and calling friends and family each month (or week) to check-in and see what’s new.

8. Expand My Horizons: Blogging has pushed me to do some pretty fun and different things – attend an interesting book reading, participate in a blogger dinner, try quinoa for the first time, go on a run with this fun lady, and more! In 2010, I want to continue to broaden my mind with new experiences.

9. QT with Hubby: I think I’ve started incorporating more quality time with him already with our movie dates. But in 2010, I want to start an official date night once a month with the Hubby where we go out and do something – not just watching movies together in the apartment.

10. Qualify for Boston! The Hubby is groaning for sure (although he did buy me a Garmin – what did he think I’d be using it for?) as he reads this one. This is a huge goal. My first marathon time was 3:54:57 and I’d need to get down to 3 hours and 40 minutes to qualify for Boston. My Garmin will be put to good use in 2010 – that I’m sure of.

For more on resolutions, check out my latest Examiner.com article on “How to Set Realistic Resolutions.” I am hoping I can follow my own advice (minus the whole “don’t shoot for the moon” one – because I am certainly doing that with my Boston goal)!

And without further ado, here’s my food recap for Monday!

Breakfast yesterday was oatmeal with raisins and agave, and as always a side if light cranberry juice.

I really wanted veggies and didn’t have time to prepare anything this morning, so I grabbed my usual salad: romaine lettuce, cheddar cheese, carrots, walnuts, dried cranberries and chic peas.

For my first afternoon snack, I pulled out my Greek Oikos blueberry yogurt. It seemed like there was an unusual amount of air inside the container. When I opened it up, it looked like this – all bubbly.

I don’t know why I even bothered, but I tried it. It was horrendous! Yuck, yuck, yuck. If you ever get a yogurt looking like this, throw it out immediately! Bleck. I checked and the whole 4-pack is like this. I think I might write Stonyfield about it.

Fear not, I had snack reserves on hand – including two clementines and an apple.

After work I forced myself to go to the gym. Seriously – when is it going to get light out again? This was my workout:

4 miles in 34:14
75 crunches
50 twist crunches (25 on each side)
20 leg lowers

When I got home I threw together this dinner.

Close up

Here’s what it is:

2 free-range organic chicken breasts pounded thin (only 1 shown, but hubby ate the same), stuffed with spinach (frozen – thawed and pressed), cheddar cheese, roasted red pepper and onion. Rolled up and pinned with two wood toothpicks – salt, pepper and spices on top. Baked for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. And a side salad with romaine lettuce, cheese, carrots and then topped with Newman’s Light Balsamic vinaigrette (not shown).

It got the Hubby seal of approval. Nuff said.

And dessert was:

Lastly, some interesting health stuff in the news…

Resolution: Get a Deal on a Gym Membership

Omega-3s Help Stave Off Age-related Vision Loss

Stay tuned for my Reflections on 2009 post coming tomorrow! 🙂 Have a great Tuesday!

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Party, Pizza Dip and Peanut Butter Balls

Posted on December 28, 2009 | 14 comments

Good morning blog world. It’s Monday again and I’m heading back to work [groan]. I know that a ton of people took off from Christmas through New Years and I’m very jealous. I’m headed back to work and dreading it.

So I was a bad blogger and was MIA on Sunday. The party on Saturday night was a ton of fun and Sunday was mostly spent lounging around, doing laundry and packing for the trip back to NYC. The Hubby convinced me to relax instead of going for a run and testing out my Garmin – darn him! But it was nice to just hang for a bit.

So here’s a quick recap of Saturday. I pretty much took no photos on Sunday – so it will be considered a lost day. But here goes Saturday.

Breakfast was an English muffin with peanut butter and topped with a banana. Side of cranberry juice.

My mother and I got out during the day to run some errands and brave the shopping crowds. It was a quick trip, but on the way home I had a Gingerbread Latte craving. It was only my second of the season – they are so darn expensive.

I snacked on a few other things during the day, but this was the only thing I managed to capture: Greek yogurt with Kashi cereal.

We headed to the party around 7:00 p.m., so I didn’t really eat a “full dinner” beforehand. I had some cheese and crackers, leftover from our Christmas day appetizers. But the party had plenty of food! I also made my pizza dip to bring along.

The party was a blast – thanks go out to Jenny and Kevin for hosting. I love their house and they are such great hosts. Here are a few pics from the night.

A few apps on the pretty table.

All the girls gathering for a group photo. I thought the stairs would be a perfect spot, but turns out we had a lot of girls and things got a bit squished.

I still think it’s super cute, even though a little tight. There were also lots of yummy desserts. And you know I can’t say “no” to desserts.

My favorite were the peanut butter balls.

Sorry for the terrible pic! I mainly snacked on veggies, taco dip, and a few desserts. I had one scoop of my pizza dip and then went back for more and it was gone. I guess that is a good thing. I had two glasses of wine and one beer throughout the night as well.

Toward the end of the party some meatballs came out and I couldn’t resist them!

They were goood! Hubby and I had such a great time. Before we knew it, everyone had left and it was time to go. Here we are together at the very end of the night.

Wow – I need a haircut!

And now I will leave you with a photo of Mr. Murphy sporting a bow-tie that I bought him from Target after the sweater didn’t fit. Doesn’t he look regal?

Mr. Murph didn’t travel so well in the car on the way up (he got sick), so we had to give him half a Benadryl for the trip back. My mom got that tip from someone who works at Petsmart, but the Benadryl should only be 25 milligrams and then cut in half. Mr. Murphy seemed a bit groggy on the trip back, but we made it home with no sickness, so I consider it a success.

Does your pet(s) travel? Do they like it? Any traveling tips?

I’m planning to hit the gym today after work to burn off some of those holiday calories and get back into the swing of things. It’s time for me to start thinking about my 2010 goals. I’ve seen them posted all over the blogosphere, so I suppose I should give it a whirl.

What’s your biggest 2010 goal?

Have a great Monday everyone!

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Guess Who Got a Garmin?!!

Posted on December 26, 2009 | 6 comments

Happy Day After Christmas! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas yesterday. I completely logged off and just focused on spending time with my family.

We were up by about 8 a.m. yesterday and opening presents. We’ve tried to scale back Christmas, since the Hubby and I are older and we really don’t need or want lots of gifts. But I have to say that I did get a few cools things, including:

A GARMIN!! Woohoo. My mom had asked a while back what I wanted and I said that was really the only thing I could think of. The funny thing was that the hubby got me one as well! (Love you Hubby!) He didn’t know I had told my mom about wanting one and he read on my blog about my Garmin dreams and bought me one too! So I technically got two Garmins this Christmas!

Then my parents also got me a water bottle for work. I’ve been needing one desperately.

Kleen Kanteen is all stainless steel – so BPA-free (no inner liner that could potentially be problematic) and it’s dishwasher safe. Mine is 40 oz. – I’ll probably drink 2-3 of these a day. 🙂

After we opened our presents, my mom whipped up a quick breakfast of mini cheese, egg and spinach baby Quiche, with sides of bacon and English muffins.

My  plate:

After breakfast the Hubby and I headed to the 11:30 a.m. mass. We took a quick photo before we left.

The 11:30 a.m. mass is the way to go. It wasn’t crowded at all!

After mass, we headed back home and relaxed a bit before some more family came over for dinner. My mom made Murphy a nice little red sweater for Christmas, but I think she underestimated how big he is. It ended up being pretty tight and Murph didn’t like it.

See how he bulges at the bottom? Poor Mr. Murph.

Our family came over around 3:00 p.m. and we ate dinner around 4-4:30. It was delicious, this was my plate.

Two pieces of beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, green beans, cabbage salad (which is like coleslaw), and broccoli and cauliflower casserole. It was all yummy.

After dinner we played a few games: LCR and Screw Your Neighbor.

Has anyone else played these games?

They are a ton of fun. I lost badly at LCR, but won twice at Screw Your Neighbor. They are really easy for everyone to learn and quick to play.

I also snacked on some Christmas cookies and had some banana cream pie, but completely forgot to take any photos. I sipped on red wine throughout the night as well. It was so much fun and such a wonderful holiday.

This was a pretty short post, but I have to run some errands today with my mom, start laundry and get some stuff together for the party tonight. I really wanted to take my Garmin for a run, but it’s pretty gross here. Snow, sleet and freezing rain would make for a very dangerous run. Maybe tomorrow it will be cleared up a bit and I can go for a quick run before we head back to the city.

But, I’m soo excited to see a bunch of our friends tonight! One of my best friends (Lauren) will be there. I ran the marathon with her and my mom framed one of our “finish” photos for both of us. I’ll have to give her hers tonight.

How cute were we? We held hands as we crossed the finish and we were both pretty much about ready to cry.

So that was my Christmas upstate. I hope everyone else had a wonderful day yesterday!

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Ghost Town

Posted on December 24, 2009 | 10 comments

Happy Christmas Eve!! I can’t believe it’s already here. Furthermore, I can’t believe I’m working today. It seems that everyone either has the day off or took it off. We get out at 3:00 p.m. and since all we have planned for tonight is an 8 p.m. Christmas Eve mass in Upstate NY and then relaxing with my parents, I didn’t see the point in taking a whole day off and using up my time.

Hence, I’m at work and the place is a ghost town. As was the bus and the subway down here. It’s an eery kind of quiet.

Do you have fun Christmas Eve plans?

I know people whose friends throw Christmas Eve parties, but my group has never really done that – Christmas Eve and Day are pretty much family-time for us. I am looking forward to a party on the 26th though! 🙂

So here’s a quick recap of yesterday’s eats:

Breakfast was a multi-grain English muffin with half peanut butter and banana and half cranberry relish I made the other night. And the remainder of the banana on the side, with a glass of light cranberry juice.

Lunch was leftover quinoa! It tasted even better the next day, I think because it was marinating in soy sauce all night.

My afternoon snacks were blueberry Greek yogurt with granola.

And a few chocolates. The first chocolate I chose had a cherry filling that I just didn’t like. I’m not a big chocolate and fruit person – are you? So I had to go back in for a different one…and then I may have had one more (unphotographed).

I had a bit of headache toward the end of the day, so I didn’t end up hitting the gym after work. Instead, I came home, made dinner and we watched a movie and then I sort of packed.

Dinner was grilled cheese with apple and a glass of wine. I was jealous that so many other people were already on vacay and I wanted to feel like I was too – hence the wine.

Close up:

Can ya see the apple? It was a wonderful addition to this traditional sammy.

What do you like to add to your grilled cheese (if you eat it)? I’m also a fan of adding tomatoes, not with apple though.

After dinner, Hubby and I watched Revolutionary Road and had mixed reactions. I didn’t love it, but didn’t hate it either. I thought it was an interesting view of suburban married life and I thought Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio gave wonderful performances. It was a little dark at times, but that didn’t bother me. Hubby thought it was very slow and boring. We agreed to disagree on it. 🙂

Then I read my book for a bit and went to bed. This book, Ahab’s Wife, really has me hooked. Every few chapters I keep being utterly surprised by what happens in the main character’s (Una) life and how she copes with it. There have been a few moments that have caught me off guard with the amount of crudeness discussed or displayed, but the way it’s written allows me to digest it, accept it and move on. In this respect, the book reminds me a bit of John Irving’s style of writing where the absurd is never shocking and the shocking is never absurd.

I also think it’s got to be hard for writers to convey the “shock factor” in a novel. In movies, the visual aspect is key in getting this across, but in books, less is sometimes almost more, as it allows the reader’s mind to fill in the gaps.

Anyway – enough book rambling.  I’m really excited to head upstate tonight after work and see my family. The Murph is coming with us in the car – that’s always interesting. When he was a kitten he loved the car, but as he’s gotten older he seems to have developed car/motion sickness. So we have to keep him in his little carrier and not let him look out the window.

Happy Christmas Eve all!! Safe travels and maybe I’ll post tomorrow – maybe not. We shall see.

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Blogger Award and TV-free Tuesday

Posted on December 23, 2009 | 14 comments

It’s Hump Day! We are continuing to inch along.

I want to start off today’s post with some inspirational bloglife. We all have our favorite blogs we read on a daily basis, but let me tell you that I had one of the best feelings yesterday when Katherine passed along the “Beautiful Blogger” award to me. The award was initially passed to her from Gena. I’ve tried to trace the award back to its roots and so far this is what I’ve got: Katherine > Gena > Michelle & Lori > Robyn > Betty > Jolene > Taylor > CaSaundra > Kelly > Shannon > Brandi > Olga > Mica > Caitlin  > Missy > Fei >Louise > Jo > Sarah > Eliza … and this is where I gave up. My gosh – that was like tracing a family tree! Anyone know where this award originated? I think this is such a wonderful and inspirational idea. I love that this award has been making the rounds and want to give credit where it’s due.

This award asks me to share seven random things about myself with you all, so here it goes:

1. I’m an only child and for that reason, I’ve always secretly wanted about 5 children. I once shared this idea with my husband and he nearly fell over. We may compromise on two.

2. I have a not-so-secret obsession with John Irving – he’s been my favorite author for years. This fall, when I found out he was coming to NYC for a Times Talk event, and there would be a few tickets available at the door, my friend says I acted like a crazed fan trying to get into a rock concert and she was scared I was going to bum-rush the door. We got in – it was amazing.

3. I don’t like bagels. Yes, this makes me a bad New Yorker. I can eat a bagel if it’s all there is, but I would never willingly choose a bagel for breakfast.

4. I have some bad food obsessions: namely cupcakes and nachos. I once went on a cupcake excursion throughout NYC and for the first few years I lived in NYC I also hunted for the perfect nachos. (Favorite cupcake place: Sugar Sweet Sunshine on Rivington; Nachos – TBD)

5. I’m a Great Aunt at 27 (through marriage of course, since I’m an only chid – see #1). I think this is hysterical. Great Aunts sound scary and old to me.

6. I’m allergic to my cat. I take allergy medicine every day to cope since I refused to give him up. He’s my little musher.

7. I love white chocolate – this is one of the strange things my husband and I share.

Now time to pass the award along to seven other beautiful bloggers. I shall pass it to:

1. Tina
2. Becky
3. Rachael
4. Dori
5. Britt
6. Chelsea (I know you already got it!)
7. Megan

This award has been around for awhile (I traced it back to October), so who knows, more than just Chelsea may have already received it!

Now for yesterday’s eats:

Breakfast was oatmeal with smashed-up banana and pumpkin butter.

I was thrilled that there was some yummy pasta salad leftover from the previous day’s potluck lunch. My co-worker Tiffany made this (she’s shown up a few times on here before). The addition of artichoke to the salad was wonderful. Great idea.

Perhaps I should have just had this the day before?! 🙂 I also had some blueberry Greek yogurt with granola.

Afternoon snacks included a piece of fancy gourmet chocolate from my chocolate box I received at yesterday’s holiday lunch/secret santa, and two clementines. My clementine kick is back!

I ate the piece in the upper right with the chopped nuts on it. YUM!

Dinner was a quinoa dish. No real recipe on this, just 3/4 cup cooked quinoa with sautéed green peppers, onion, carrots and broccoli with soy sauce. It was very filling.

For dessert, I decided to finish up the cranberries in the fridge and make cranberry relish in the microwave again. I ate only a bit of it and saved the rest for later. I used 4 packets of Truvia and half a teaspoon of agave to sweeten it up.

The Hubby had his work holiday dinner, so I was in the apartment alone with Murphy. After dinner I vacuumed and tidied up a bit and then considered turning on the tube…but decided against it. I had a lovely t.v.-free Tuesday night and it was rather refreshing.

After cleaning, I grabbed my book and read from about 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. and then fell asleep. It was nice to turn off all the noise for one night. Plus, there really isn’t anything I’m much into right now on t.v.

How bout you – do you watch t.v. every night, do you take a break every now and then, or do you not watch at all?

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Potluck Lunch and Mile Reps

Posted on December 22, 2009 | 5 comments

Good morning! I don’t know about you, but I had a really tough time getting out of bed today. I was so warm and cozy. Not to mention, I went to bed pretty early last night and enjoyed a good night’s sleep. I never want to leave a really good night of sleep.

But the day goes on right. So I forced myself up and out of the house.

Let me do a quick recap of yesterday’s eats and activities.

Breakfast was lazy – Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with almond milk and light cranberry juice.

I had my usual unphotographed mid-morning snack of a granola bar and then waited ever so patiently for our department potluck lunch…which didn’t actually happen until 2:00! Eeks. Hence, when we finally got to the food, my plate ended up looking like this:

Lots of food: green beans, roasted potatoes, eggplant parm, pasta salad, rice and low mein. It was a lot, but I was ravenous. I managed to steer clear of most of the fried things, but I’m pretty sure the rice was fried. Oh well.

After the main meal, I put together this dessert plate filled with a sugar cookie (I made), a carrot cake cupcake (love carrot cake with cream cheese frosting), and a chocolate chip butterscotch cookie.

I feel it’s important to note that I only ate half of my sugar cookie.

I didn’t snack for the rest of the day after that enormous lunch (I might have had seconds of the pasta salad and eggplant parm – shhh). By the time the potluck lunch was over, it was 3:00 p.m. anyway!

Around 4:00 p.m. the tempting ideas of skipping the gym and potential excuses I could use started popping into my head. But, I brushed them away and forced myself to go.

How do you squash those excuses and avoidance techniques and force yourself to hit the gym?

I felt much, much better after going to the gym. My body thanked me for it. Here was my workout:

.5 miles at 6.3
1 mile at 7.5
.5 miles at 6.3
1 mile at 7.6
.5 mile at 6.3
.5 mile at 7.7
Total: 4 miles in 34.25 minutes

That was my version of mile reps! Oh I remember my cross-country days and how much I hated mile rep practices. I would dread them all week. That’s probably why most of the time our coach wouldn’t tell us what kind of practice we were doing until we got there. Now I’m willingly doing them – ha!

Have you ever tried running mile repetitions? It’s great for your speed. (But much better when run outside)

After my quick run I did some ab stuff as well:

75 crunches
30 alternating leg crunches

I was kind of an ab slacker. Oh well.

I got home from the gym and wanted an easy and quick dinner. I remembered I had a pilaf package in the cabinet that I wanted to try.

I also threw in some sautéed green peppers and onions, and  some grape tomatoes. Clearing out the fridge.

I added some chicken to Bill’s version of the dinner (no photo). I wasn’t in the mood for meat – especially chicken. The pilaf had a bit of a kick. I enjoyed the addition of soybeans to the mix though. I’d buy it again. Bill ate it, but I’m not sure how he felt about the soybeans. 🙂

After dinner, I finished up the remaining half of my grapefruit with a packet of Truvia sprinkled on top.

It was yummy, but my weekend sugar kick left me wanting more sweets. Second dessert was a teaspoon of peanut butter with some semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Finally my sweets-craving was satiated.

Some interesting health headlines:

REGIMENS: Click Off the TV, and Burn More Calories

Hangover impairs judgment in young adults – funny because of my recent terrible hangover. Good thing I wasn’t making big decisions that day or operating dangerous equipment.

Fake sugar may alter how the body handles real sugar – this one doesn’t say much other than further studies need to be conducted to determine more conclusive results. I’ve started using Truvia and Stevia, so I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.  What kind of sweeteners do you use?

Have a great Tuesday everyone – we’re inching closer to a nice holiday break – hang in there!

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