Category Archives: Uncategorized

Movie Date Debate

Posted on December 10, 2009 | 2 comments

It’s Thursday, which means tomorrow is FRIDAY!! Yipee! I am looking forward to a low-key weekend, hopefully with some good running involved.

So last night Hubby and I had a movie date night. We are Netflix members (best decision ever), but we had just returned two movies, so we checked our “online queue” where you can just download them straight from your t.v. There were a few on there to choose from. I really wanted to watch Food, Inc., but Hubby said I need to watch that one when he’s not around. No fun.

So we ended up going with “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.” I had never heard of it before, but it had some big-name actors: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke and Marissa Tomei.

The premise of this movie and the characters’ actions ended up really affecting me. I was almost in tears and was feeling very stressed and anxious throughout the whole thing. Hubby hates watching movies with me because I constantly ask questions and make comments. I really try not to do it, but most times I don’t even realize I’m talking. And during this movie I was particularly out of control.

At the end, I turned to Hubby and said I really disliked the movie and thought it was awful. He then claimed that if a movie could get me so riled up and upset, then shouldn’t we classify it as good because it did its job. So that is our movie date debate.

Even if you dislike a movie’s premise, turn of events and general feel, if it affects you emotionally, would you then classify it as good?

In this case, I do not. I would NEVER want to see that movie again and don’t even particularly like thinking about it. Maybe to some that makes it good, but to me, it will always be a “bad movie” in my book.

Sorry for that little tangent. Here are yesterday’s eats. Breakfast was a multi-grain hot cereal with flaxseed and soy. It was on sale at the store, so I gave it a try. I added raisin and agave.

It was just okay. Nothing to write home about. I’ll use it all up though and then try something else.

Lunch yesterday was leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. I ate it cold and it was actually quite good.

Wow – I really hate florescent lights. This looks just awful.

Afternoon snacks were initially going to include just Chobani Pineapple yogurt with granola and two clementines. But then the 4:00 hunger monster struck and I ate some trail mix that I had leftover from my L.A. trip.

After work I hit the gym for a quick workout. I was feeling really tired (perhaps b/c our office was an inferno today and the heat really got to me).

Does your office have a temperature problem like mine? It’s either frigid or sweltering, no in between.

I felt very weak at the gym today, so I did the following.

3.1 miles in 27 minutes
85 crunches
20 leg lowers (abs)
15 squats
15 lunges

And yes, I need to do some arm stuff. But I was just so worn out.

I stopped at the store on my way home, with the intention of buying some cranberries to make a little dessert I read about on another blog. Well, when I got home, I realized I had bought a bunch of stuff, but completely forgot the cranberries.

For dinner I made some quick curry couscous and added in some chopped up vegetarian “sausage.” Doesn’t look spectacular, but I was happy. Hubby went his own way for dinner last night since he “needed meat.”

Afterwards I wanted something sweet. The cranberry light dessert was what I had planned, but that was obviously not an option. So I made this little concoction.

Warm Apple Mush

1 apple chopped (with skin on)
1/2 cup of water
1 packet of truvia
1 tsp of agave nectar
1 tsp of cinnamon
handful of granola

Directions

Place chopped apple in a microwave safe bowl with water. Microwave on high for 1 minute – remove and smush some of the apple. Microwave on high again for 1 minute. Remove and smush apples again as desired. Add all the other ingredients and mix.

It was sooo good! Just what I wanted. It’s almost like applesauce, but not as smooth. It was the right amount of sweet and tart.

Just before we started our movie I browsed my new issue of Runner’s World. I was excited to see a “Marathon Guide” in the issue and was even more pumped to see two of the marathons I was considering ranked as “the fastest” courses. The Wineglass Marathon and the Bay State Marathon were featured and they are both races that Runnerbelle suggested previously as well!

After the movie I read a bit and headed to bed. My new book is very good. I’ll try to post a David Copperfield recap soon and will talk about my new book more tomorrow.

P.S. – Hubby texted me to tell me they are filming Gossip Girl on our street and actually right in front of our building! I saw them coning it off when I left this morning, but had no clue for what. I don’t watch the show, but still think it’s pretty cool our building might make a special appearance.

Have a great Thursday!

2 Comments

Posted in Books, Dessert, Uncategorized

It’s Beginning to Look a Bit Like Christmas

Posted on December 9, 2009 | 4 comments

Hello Wednesday. I must say, after last week’s all-over-the-place schedule, this week’s “normal” routine is feeling sluggish. I’m ready for Friday already. Although I did just get a ton of work, which is sure to make the rest of the week fly by – I hope!

BTW – check out my latest Examiner article, inspired by my great run at the gym yesterday morning:

Taking it to the treadmill and thriving

So who watched The Biggest Loser finale last night?! I did, I did! It was amazing. Everyone looked soo different. I have to say that Danny, Rudy, Tracey and Rebecca all blew me out of the water. I’m almost inclined to say that Tracey and Rebecca might have gone a bit too far. I hope they reached that weight in a completely healthy and appropriate way.

Spoiler Alert: Stop reading if you don’t want to know who won.

I am THRILLED that Danny won! I was almost certain that Rudy was going to take the crown, but I’m really glad Danny walked away with it. For some reason, Rudy bothered me. He was always preaching the “anyone can do this, I want to inspire others” rhetoric. What I really wanted to hear was: “I am doing this for me, for my health and for what I’m going to gain from this experience.” It’s great to be a role model, but come on, we know why you’re there.

What was your reaction to the finale?

So onto yesterday’s food.

Breakfast after yesterday’s run at the gym was sort of pathetic: a banana and coffee. As well as a bottle of water (not shown).

It was the best I could do in my scramble to get out the door in the morning. Miraculously, it held me over until my 11:00 a.m. granola bar snack.

Lunch was a bit later than normal and consisted of a salad with romaine lettuce, cheddar cheese, carrots, chic peas, walnuts and dried cranberries. Yum!!

My snack later in the afternoon was Greek yogurt (honey flavored) with granola and an apple.

As the day came to a close, I began to look forward to dinner and the chance to prove myself after yesterday’s crock pot disaster. I chose to make this simple recipe, adapted from one I found on allrecipes.com

Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

1/2 (16 ounce) package uncooked penne pasta
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 clove of chopped garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/8 cup of frozen spinach
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 chopped roasted red pepper

Directions

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place penne pasta in the pot, cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and cook the garlic until lightly browned. Mix in lemon juice, stir in the pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes. Defrost spinach, drain, add and cook for 1 minute. Toss in the cooked pasta and feta cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

It was really good and light. The hubby seemed to like it as well.

My mini dessert:

And then after dinner – we decorated!! I feel bad, the Hubby had to do some digging in the basement to get out our big holiday container and he was none too pleased. But I think it was well worth it (although he may not). Here is our mini tree! Our apt is too small for a full-sized tree. I managed it our first year in the city, but quickly gave up the large tree idea the following year.

And here is our fireplace with our stockings! And Murphy’s!

And here is Murphy biting the tree. I’m sure I’ll find stuff on the floor when I get home this evening.

I was very satisfied with my minor decorations once everything was complete. I need to have a little something up. I then sat back and watched the end of the Biggest Loser while sipping on this tea.

And with that, my night was complete. I failed to mention that I was doing laundry will cooking and eating as well. So a night filled with laundry, delicious dinner, decorating and Danny winning The Biggest Loser. Awesome!

Until tomorrow – Happy Hump Day!

4 Comments

Posted in Holidays, Recipes, Uncategorized

Crock Pot Catastrophe

Posted on December 8, 2009 | 5 comments

Good morning! Before I get into the catastrophe I created last night, I’m going to focus on a positive thing I did today: I actually went to the gym this morning!! I know – I can’t believe I actually got up and went. It felt great. It’s so strange when you first try out a routine and you’re figuring out your timeframe and what works. Everything went well.

I left our apartment around 5:45 a.m. and was to the gym and getting on the treadmill by 6:00 a.m. Here’s what I did:

4 miles – 35:07
.5 miles – for a total finishing time of 39:57
75 crunches
25 alternating scissors
50 (25 each side) criss-cross crunches

That was actually a little more than I typically do at the gym after work. I was out of the gym and heading to the subway by 7:40 a.m. or so and even got to work a little bit early. I’m going to look into reserving one of the lockers and keeping some of my stuff there permanently. But it is kind annoying to lug all this stuff around all day.

If you workout at the gym in the morning and head to work straight from there, how do you minimize what you bring to the gym?

Now my eats from yesterday and the catastrophe.

Breakfast yesterday was oatmeal with 1 tsp of pumpkin butter, 1 tsp of almond butter, raisins and a swizzle of agave.

I never post it, but I ate my usual granola bar snack around 11:00 a.m. Since I hadn’t been in the office for a few days, my Monday was hectic and I had a ton of stuff to catch up on. The morning flew by.

Lunch was actually leftovers from last week when I made the rice and beans with grape tomatoes. It was still good and I pretty much devoured it.

Later in the afternoon, I had a Greek honey yogurt with granola (but it was camera-shy or I was just forgetful) and then I had two clementines.

After work, I was all set to go to the gym. I was heading that way, when all of a sudden I got a text from the Hubby saying. “Dinner burned.”

WHAT?! Now, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, on Sunday night I put a bunch of stuff in the crock pot for Monday night’s dinner. Before I left the house Monday morning, I asked Bill to turn it on LOW for 10 hours. I had adapted a recipe I found online and then asked for some tips from my mom before putting it together. This was to be my first crock potting experience. The darn thing has been sitting in our basement for about 3 years.

Here’s the before picture:

I threw together about 2 cups of chicken broth, 2 diced chicken breasts, 1/3 cup of balsamic, a dash of wine, 1/4 cup of chopped onion, one chopped garlic clove, carrots and spinach.

Being worried about my first crock pot dinner, I decided to skip the gym (bad I know!) and flew home to see what devastation awaited me. This was the scene in the kitchen when I arrived:

Sadness!! I was so upset. I made a valiant attempt to salvage the remains with some chicken broth and spices and the end result looked like this:

Hubby and I tried to eat it…but it was just awful. The chicken was dry and it sort of reminded me of cat food. I think if I ever try this one again, it needs a LOT more liquid. Alas, we gave up and I had this for dinner instead.

PB&J sandwich with carrots.

Then I had a little chocolate fix – hot cocoa – to make everything better.

We were so depressed about dinner that I decided to cheer Bill up by holding off on the Christmas decorating for one night and watching Bruno instead.

My take on this movie: it had some funny parts, but overall I wasn’t all that impressed. I definitely think Sascha Baron Cohen is an amazing actor for being able to pull off these incredulous characters, but watching his movies once is usually enough for me. And I liked Borat better than Bruno.

I went to bed shortly after we finished the movie, with my secret intent to get up early the next morning and hit the gym. I’ve stopped telling the Hubby that I’m going in the morning because then he just laughs when I snooze 18 times and never make it. This time I kept quiet about my plan and then confused the heck out of him when I left at 5:45 a.m.

And now I’m thrilled that tonight is free. My plan is to stop at the store, do a load of laundry, make dinner and decorate! It probably doesn’t sound very exciting to others, but to me it sounds divine.

Have a great Tuesday.

P.S. – I got a girl in the Secret Santa thing (we picked yesterday) and I kind of know her, so I’m less Grinch-like today.

5 Comments

Posted in Running, Uncategorized

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

West Coast Bound

Posted on December 2, 2009 | 5 comments

I’m going going, out to Cali, Cali. It’s Wednesday morning and I’m heading out West! To Los Angeles, California to be exact. I’m headed there for training for work, so nothing too exciting – but a trip to Cali just the same.

Right now I’m on the plane and am pumped because we’re flying Virgin America and it has a free Google-sponsored Wi-Fi deal for passengers until January 15, 2010! Nice. Our flight left at 7:30 a.m. (EST) and I am pretty darn tired. I had a giant coffee this morning before the flight because I really don’t want to sleep much on the place since we’ve got a busy day ahead of us. I’m hoping I will be able to post at least once or twice while I’m there.

Let me do a quick recap of yesterday’s eats. For breakfast I went a little crazy and threw some chocolate into my oatmeal. This looks disgusting, but it was good. 1/2 cup of oats, tsp of peanut butter, 1 banana and a few semi-sweet all natural chocolate chips. Once mixed, it looks G-ross.

Next time I’ll take a pre-mixed pic.

For lunch I was boring and had leftovers from Monday night’s dinner, minus the pasta. It tasted pretty decent on day two though. I also had some strawberry Greek yogurt with granola and oats.

Later in the afternoon, as I wrapped up all my work in preparation for the trip, I snacked on two clementines. Still rocking the vitamin c, although I feel pretty much 100% better and think I was just suffering from allergies on Sunday night.

After work I headed home to finish up packing and prepping and spend some time with the hubby. I seriously feel like lately we are just ships passing in the night- we only ever seem to have a day or two together before one of us is off to somewhere else. And last night wasn’t very much quality time since I was packing and wrapping things up and then I went to bed early. Sorry Bill – we’ll get to spend some QT together soon!

How do you stay connected with your significant other when schedules gets hectic and time is tight?

For dinner I wanted something really quick and nothing is quicker than rice and beans. Wild rice, black beans and a few grape tomatoes.

But I also needed some chocolate to ease my traveling nerves – of course!

And now I’m headed across the country to see what Cali has in store. We are staying in Beverly Hills (how posh right?), but we won’t have too much time to explore. We’ll be in training from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm on Thursday and Friday and then I am taking the red-eye back to NY on Friday night. It’s going to be exhausting.

I think we’re headed to a pretty nice lunch this afternoon, so I will be sure to take some pics and hopefully post a daily recap tomorrow at some point. Added bonus, the weather report for the next few days in Cali says between 65-70 degrees – I will certainly take it!!

In the News:
I think this college is taking things a bit too far, What do you think? It’s great to “encourage” living healthy, but you can’t mandate it. People have the right to eat and live as they please.

College’s too-fat-to-graduate rule under fire

I’m signing off and either attacking my new book or watching some free movies. Yup – you read right – I FINISHED David Copperfield finally!! The next book on my list, and with me on the plane, is Ahab’s Wife. Anyone read it? I’ll do a Copperfield review in the near future, but I warn you, it may not be too exciting.

P.S. – Check out this give-away on Meg’s Be Fit Be Full blog. I love the pumpkin granola!

5 Comments

Posted in Books, Travel, Uncategorized

An Official New York Road Runner

Posted on December 1, 2009 | 9 comments

Good morning blog world! It’s Tuesday – we made it through Monday – yipee! I was pretty darn tired yesterday and was still wondering if I was actually going to get sick. I woke up yesterday feeling a little bit better and hoped it was just a nasty allergy attack.

For breakfast I had 1/2 cup of oats, tsp of pumpkin butter, handful of raisins and a splash of milk.

It was really tough to get moving and get out the door on time. I had to stop and grab a coffee to help keep me sane and awake. Monday mornings at work are typically pretty busy for me, so I knew the coffee would help.

I was surprised that the day actually moved along pretty quickly. I ate my morning granola bar at 11:00 and then the one or two new projects I started to work on kept me occupied and before I realized it, it was 1:45 and I hadn’t had lunch yet!

I trudged out in the rain and got a salad from across the street. The usual stuff: romaine lettuce, peas, carrots, cheddar cheese, walnuts and craisins.

My camera was a little off, so pics are looking blurry.

After lunch, I went onto the New York Road Runners site and browsed some races. I decided I wanted to sign up for two in January. And then I just bit the bullet and became a member. It’s about time I started running races in NYC and not just upstate. I typically try to run all my races with my running buddy Lauren, but as my hubby said yesterday, “she’s not always going to be able to run with you.” Sadness. So I signed up for these two races:

NYRR Fred Lebow Classic (5M)
NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Manhattan

Lauren WILL be able to run the Half Marathon with me!! YAY!! I will tackle the Fred Lebow 5 miler on my own – just call me Miss Independent. Unless my hubby surprises me and decides to run it as well. 😉

Any other NYC bloggers planning on running either of these?

I am generally NOT a winter runner, but this will be my attempt to keep running strong throughout the winter. If you’re a runner, do you still race in the cold weather?

My co-worker tells me that she actually runs better in the cold. Not me.

Later on in the afternoon yesterday I had some Greek Yogurt with granola and oats and two clemetines (gotta get that vitamin C to stay healthy!).

BTW – today at noon you can sign-up for the NYC Half Marathon Lottery . Can you tell that I have racing on the brain after my Turkey Trot? It’s an addiction.

I didn’t work out last night after work for a few reasons: 1) I was tired, 2) I’m going away on Wednesday morning for a business trip and needed to run some preparatory errands, 3) I haven’t actually hung out with Bill in a while, 4) I was tired.

So I left work, picked up some traveling necessities and headed home. I made this quick and easy dinner:

Here is my made-up recipe for it.

Asparagus Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers

Ingredients

3/4 cup chicken broth
2 chicken breasts
1/3 cup of diced onion
salt and pepper to taste
6-8 stems of fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 (7 ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped grape tomatoes
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, or to taste
1/3 cup shredded parmesean cheese

Directions

Heat the broth in a large skillet over medium-high heat with the garlic and onion. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and place in the skillet. Cook 15 minutes, until chicken is almost done.
Place asparagus and red peppers in skillet. Continue cooking 10 minutes until asparagus is tender. Place tomatoes in skillet during last 2 minutes of cook time. Sprinkle with vinegar. Top with parmesean cheese and serve.

It was yummy and the husband rated it as “pretty good.”

After dinner I had a small piece of the white cake with white frosting that Bill’s sister Christine made for his birthday and brought to Thanksgiving dinner. I was shocked that Bill was willing to share his cake. But then he told me that Christine made him promise to share with me – figures! It was great.

The rest of my night was quiet and I went to bed pretty early. However, Murphy decided to try to wake me up pretty much every two hours during the night, so I’m a bit tired again today.

I’m starting to get a little nervous about traveling tomorrow. I’m one of those people who is always afraid of missing a flight or forgetting something important or losing my luggage. Generally – just not a very relaxed traveler. Hence, I start prepping 2-3 days in advance.

Are you a good traveler – what are some of your helpful tips or tricks?

I AM excited about the possibility of running while we’re training in L.A. The weather there is looking nice and warm. I could certainly use a nice West-coast run. 🙂

Last note – I want to say congrats to my friend Becky for starting her new blog: Write On!! I’m so happy she is proactively seeking new creative outlets and will be able to share her passion and wonderful insights with others. Becky is one of the people in my life that I always “talk books” with. We typically like the same books and are ALWAYS asking each what the other is reading and for recommendations. Now I can just check out her blog and see that, as well as her feedback and reviews. I’m so excited – so be sure to check it out. She’s also on my Blogroll! 🙂 Love ya Becks!

9 Comments

Posted in Bloggers, Dessert, NYRR, Races, Recipes, Running, 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

The Thanksgiving Aftermath

Posted on November 28, 2009 | 4 comments

Let me start with an apology – I have been a bad blogger. I’m not even going to offer up any lame excuses. I’ve been bad and I fully admit it. You’re not going to like my Thanksgiving recap because I didn’t take ANY food pics.

I know – the shame!! The guilt!! My hubby’s family doesn’t really know too much about my whole blogging “thing” yet, and I didn’t feel like Thanksgiving was the best time to spring it on them, so I felt totally weird snapping away like I normally would.

Have you encountered situations where you’ve kept the camera hidden away – if so, when?

My apologies in advance for this lame-o post. I PROMISE to do better at Christmas. I can tell you that I tried every dish at Thanksgiving dinner and several of the desserts. My homemade apple sauce went over well too!

So here are a few pics from the day, but please don’t be expecting to see any food. Sorry!!

Bill holding his nephew’s (yes, nephew) new baby – Kevin III. Three weeks old. What a little peanut!

Me and Bill’s nephew, Freddy. I mean technically, all of Bill’s nieces and nephews are mine now too!! I always forget that and refer to them as “his.” I’m an only child, so the idea of nieces and nephews is new to me.

And then just so this post isn’t totally foodless – I’ll put in a Saturday morning breakfast recap. I know – I’m such a bad blogger! No food recap for Thursday or Friday – I totally went off the grid. 😉

Here is the morning’s breakfast of oatmeal, a little milk, raisins, 1 tsp. of maple syrup and some kashi cereal:

Then before my mom and I headed out to do something Christmas shopping, I spotted some leftover banana pudding in the fridge. I seriously don’t know how there were leftovers of this. I had a small helping to fuel my shopping.

Shopping was a success! I managed to handle the crowds and get a bunch of presents checked off my list. Now I’m going to eat a light lunch and relax for a bit before I head up to Saratoga for dinner and drinks with some good friends.

Tomorrow will be a better post – I promise! I’ll have more food photos AND I’ll give a full recap of the Turkey Trot – it was CRAZY!

So please don’t hate me blog world for delivering a sub-par Thanksgiving recap. I promise I’ll make it up to you!

4 Comments

Posted in Holidays, Running, Uncategorized