Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Happy and Hectic Holiday

Happy Holidays!! So I’m still here and still running, but posting has certainly proved difficult with all the travel and  partying I HAD to do.

I’ll start off with my confession: Boston Marathon training has had a rocky start. I’m into my third week and the first two weeks’ mileage looked pretty sad. First week I managed almost 14 miles and the second week only 17.5. I was supposed to have hit 24 and 23 respectively.

I’ve tried to make myself feel better about this by remembering that for my first marathon, I followed a 16-week training plan instead of 18 weeks. So technically, I should just really buckle down and getting running this week.

I did manage to make it out today for a 3.3 mile run on the snow-filled streets of Manhattan. I tried the East River first and got in about a mile there on some semi-plowed pavement and then I had to take it to the streets. I came back home with some very cold and wet feet.

I’m not going to recap all that I did this holiday–I’ll simply say that it was busy and fun. We spent Christmas with my parents and family upstate. There were many parties, lots of good food and way too many desserts.  I got some pretty great gifts as well – compression socks, a new running hat, a new bag, tickets to a Christmas show,  lotion and more! I made it out well.

How was your Christmas? Did you spend it with family? Did you have to travel?

I got in one decent longish run upstate – 9.5 miles with my friend in 27 degree weather. Once we got going, it really wasn’t too bad.

I also finished two books, which I will have reviews for in the next few days: Ultramarathon Man and Little Bee. All I will say is that every runner should read Ultramarathon Man if you are looking for inspiration. I’ll go more in depth probably tomorrow, but it was great. It made me feel like I need and should be running more. I gave it to my friend and she read it in 2 days. It’s that good.

We headed home to NYC on Monday and passed this bus stuck on the city streets.

[/source]

A lot of the streets weren’t even plowed yet or plowed pretty poorly. I foresee some treadmill in my future tomorrow because today’s run felt a little unnecessarily treacherous.

Time to be jealous: I’ve got the next few days off from work – yippee!! The plan is to log some decent miles, read some books and chill out a bit.

P.S. – I have a friend trying to run the 2011 Boston Marathon through a charity program, does anyone know of some that are still open? I know a lot of them have closed already.

Hello – Is Anyone Still There?

Hello blog world – is anyone still reading? I know – I’ve been away so long. Things have gotten so hectic, as I’m sure you all are feeling as well. The holidays have hit like a ton of bricks and work hasn’t exactly been a piece of cake either. Oh and did I forget to mention that 2011 BOSTON MARATHON TRAINING HAS BEGUN!!

Yup – it started on Monday and so far so good. I banged out a great almost 6 mile run on Monday morning before work and have hit the treadmill on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m going to try to make tomorrow an early morning run, but you know how I am with those. 😦

For those of you interested, here is the link to my training plan. I’d say it’s a middle-of-the-road plan. It’s not a beginner approach, but it is by no means as aggressive as some I’ve seen. I plan to run 600 miles between now and April 18th, 2011. My highest mileage week will be 45 miles and my longest run will be 22 miles. So game on!!

So what have I been up to lately? Well, our gas is still broken, so no baking really to speak of. I’m currently reading two books. I know – I’m usually not the type. Well, I was already into Little Bee, but then I picked up Ultramarathon Man – Confessions of a Midnight Runner, for some running inspiration and the first 5 pages pulled me right in. I’m thinking one will be a commuting book and one will be a before bedtime book.

In running news – I have been running even pre-training! Hurray. It hasn’t been a lot, but it’s been better than nothing. My friend Lauren came down to visit two weekends in a row and we raced both weekends. Here we are running the Joe Kleinerman 10k…

We ran the 10k in 50:13. And then the next weekend, we ran the Jingle Bell Jog with our friend Rachael in Prospect Park and we were very festive…


Like the socks?! NYRR provided us with the jingle bells for our shoes, so we just took it to the next level. We ran this 4 mile race in 31:59. P.S. – I am officially qualified for the NYC Marathon in 2011 through the NYRR 9 +1 program (run 9 NYRR races and volunteer at 1)!

And then, I also experienced Santacon for the first time ever…


Hundreds of drunken Santas and elves running around NYC – definitely interesting. Unfortunately, we missed the “reindeer games” that happened in Central Park – we showed up just after things ended, but I can only imagine. And no – we were not dressed up, we simply wanted to see what this Santacon was all about.

All in all, it’s been a very busy past few weeks. I apologize for the lack of posting and commenting. Although my posts may be sporadic right now, hopefully I will get back into a routine after the holidays. Hope all is well with everyone and you are enjoying the holiday season. I’ve got to find the time to check in on the blogosphere to see what’s new!

So tell me – what’s new with you (if anyone is still reading). How are your holidays going?!

A Short Thanksgiving Hiatus

I’m back! I was gone for a while there. Almost a week. And I’m not going to do a giant Thanksgiving recap because, frankly, I’m past that, I’m not motivated to and I didn’t even take many pictures. I just enjoyed my time with my in-laws fully, ate a lot, ran some and relaxed. I hope you all did the same!

Ok fine – here’s one dessert shot…

I made the white cake for Hubby’s b-day. It was a bit drier than I wanted. I guess I’ll just have to make another one soon! (Whenever I have my oven back that is).

Over the holiday, we also attended my 10 year high school reunion and Hubby’s 15 year high school reunion. Both were more fun than I expected, thankfully. Here’s a photo of me with a bunch of the girls from my elementary school. Oh yeah – we go way back.

It was fun to catch up a bit with everyone. I felt like most people looked the same.

Oh – and I totally forgot to brag about the fact that I got a Personal Record in the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. It’s a tradition for my friend Lauren and I to run it every year. And for so long, I’ve been wanting to break 24 minutes. I did it. I ran the 5k in 23:36!! Woohoo!

Other than that, not too much new. I did just want to end this post by sharing some information about Lung Cancer. A friend of mine sent me this email yesterday and it really touched me and made me want to get involved. Please read the article (link below) and sign the petition!!

“Friends & family,
As you probably know by now, life threw us a curve ball this year with a lung cancer diagnosis. I’m not one to send mass emails unless it’s for a worthy cause, and I feel this falls in that category.
 
Did you know that cancer incidence among women who’ve never smoked (i.e., yours truly) is one of the fastest growing of all cancers, and no one really knows why?
 
Did you know that more women die every year from lung cancer than from breast cancer?
 
Did you know that November is lung cancer awareness month? (I didn’t.) There are no ribbons or NFL teams wearing a color to raise awareness for this kind of cancer. It’s a quiet cancer. And one that isn’t going away.
 
Every year over the last decade, I’ve enthusiastically supported the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, raising thousands of dollars for this highly supported cause by asking for donations from friends and families like you.

This year, I am asking you for something different. Please take a few minutes to read the article linked below, and sign the petition. And then pass it on. We have to change the way lung cancer is talked about. By talking about it. More awareness = more dollars for research = more of a chance for a cure.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-densen/lung-cancer-kills-so-does_b_786081.html
 
Thanks for reading. (And I BEG you, if you smoke, get the help you need to stop.)
 
Dismounting my soapbox now!
Lots of love & gratitude,
R

Eggland’s Best Blogger Brunch & Happy B-Day Hubby!

So I’m a bit behind on my blogging. I meant to blog about this past Sunday’s Blogger Brunch yesterday, but that just didn’t happen.

But before I get into that, I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBY!! I miss you and can’t wait to see you soon. I hope you are having a great day.

[source] I wanted to take a Happy Birthday picture with Murphy to send to you, but he’s up at my parent’s house already. But I think this cat accurately captures what Murphy’s attitude would be about taking said photo with me. 🙂

Anyway, after the race on Sunday, I went back home for a quick shower and then headed out to the Gramercy area for a Blogger Brunch hosted by Ashley.

I arrived just a group of local bloggers were heading inside and knew right away that this was going to be a fun brunch. Ashley welcomed us into her home graciously, gave us a little tour (she has a closet any NYC resident would die for) and filled our hands with mimosas. We also got a chance to meet her hubby before he headed out. A special thank you to Bo for letting us ladies take over his apartment for a bit.

After some brief introductions where I met, Rebecca Theodora (we have the same last name – well my maiden name – and think we might somehow be distantly related), MarissaCaronae, Robyn, Ali (yay for these last two Upper East Siders!), Deidre and Amelia, Jocelyn and Shannon for the first time. I also got a chance to catch up with Megan a bit – we’ve previously met at a few blogger outings and I wanted to says congrats to her in person on her great run at the NYC Marathon, we got down to business with some delicious eats!

Eggland’s Best was kind enough to sponsor our brunch to help spread breast cancer awareness. They also provided some helpful handouts with breast-cancer related information. Ashley started off the presentation and then the discussion kept moving right along.

Thank you Eggland’s Best! It was so nice to meet everyone and hear about their blog, what got them involved in blogging and the topics they talk about. I’ve got a whole new list of bloggers to catch up on!

Here’s a group shot of us (photo borrowed from Ali’s blog)

Hopefully this is just the first of many NYC blogger meet-ups! I also hope that some NYC bloggers might want to join my book club when I start it in January. 🙂 A big thanks again to Ashley for hosting!!

Is it vacation time yet? I’m working a full day today (Tuesday) and until 3 p.m. tomorrow. What are your Thanksgiving plans? I’m heading up to Utica for Thanksgiving at the in laws!

Casellula Review and Race to Deliver Recap

Good evening blog world. How was your weekend? Mine was very good and busy. Saturday started off with some much-needed cleaning. But not before I had a decent breakfast. Banana oatmeal with peanut butter and flaxseed meal.

Later in the afternoon I had a light lunch after my cleaning and before heading out for dinner.

I decided not to run on Saturday in order to give myself some extra rest before Sunday’s race.

Around 4:30 I headed to my friends’ apartment in Hell’s Kitchen to meet their two new little kittens. Sorry no pics, but they were absolutely adorable. Then we headed out to dinner in their neighborhood. It took some searching before settling on Casellula, a wine and cheese bar a bit off the beaten tourist path. Hell’s Kitchen definitely has a TON of restaurant choices, but I get a bit frustrated with the really touristy places. This place was located between 9th and 10th Ave. on 52nd  Street. It has a really big wine and cheese list. Two things I love.

We started off sharing the Endive Salad, which had crumbled blue cheese and pear.

It was a very unique taste and I enjoyed it.

Next we moved on to the Chistorras in a Blanket…

These little guys were a wee bit spicy, but delicious nonetheless. After finishing these off, we shared a cheese plate.

We ordered Willow Hill Farm La Fleurie and two other kinds that aren’t shown on their online menu, but were delicious.

And then lastly, we saw another table order something that looked divine. We decided we needed to try it.

My apologies, it is an awful photo of the Ricotta Crostini with Orange Blossom, Honey, Hazelnuts and Lemon. This was so good. I’m very happy we ordered it. It was my favorite by far. Next time around, I would love to try the Mac N’Cheese! All in all, this meal was very good. With three of us sharing three different dishes and a cheese plate with one glass of wine each, it came to about $30 per person – not too bad for tapas actually. However, we did notice that they gave us only 3 portions on each plate, while others seem to get 4-5 portions even though there were only two people. We thought this was a bit unfair to charge us the same price when we were getting less food. What is the standard with Tapas?

Race to Deliver (4 miles) Recap
I headed home early last night because I had to be up pretty early for the 4 mile race in Central Park on Sunday – the Race to Deliver.  I went to bed around 11:00 p.m. and had a tough time falling asleep. Then things got much worse when a bunch of either college kids or young 20-somethings were outside drinking in the backyard area behind our building until 4:30 in the morning! And they were not quiet. There were girls screeching and cackling all night long. I think I was able to sleep through most of it until about 4 a.m. when they got REALLY loud. Finally at 4:30 a.m. I think my first-floor neighbor had had enough. I heard someone come out and scream angrily at these kids. At first one guy tried to yell back and, I don’t know, I guess assert their right to be obnoxiously loud. However, once I heard the mention of police in the conversation, things got significantly quieter very quickly. I was able to go back to bed until about 6:45.

Then I got up and had some oatmeal for breakfast as some pre-race fuel. I jogged over to Central Park a little before 8:00 a.m. and found my corral. This was my very first 4-mile race. For some reason, I thought I’d run one before, but I think it was actually the race I skipped out on in the summer. I was excited to give this new race length a try.

The race began and very quickly we were headed up Cat Hill. Not fun. However, I told myself to stay strong because it was really going to be the only big hill during the whole race. I made my way up the hill a little slower than I wanted, but was happy to have it behind me. It was around 40 degrees outside, which made for a chilly pre-race, but was perfect for racing.

Mile 2 went by in a blur. I felt like I was moving really fast. I decided not check my Garmin until around mile 3 – I just wanted to push hard and see where that took me, regardless of what Garmin said.

I felt really great throughout this whole race. When I finally looked at my Garmin at the 3 mile marker, I was pleased to see it showed around a 7:42 minute mile. I started to push a bit harder as I neared the end.

My official finish time was 30:48. Average pace was 7:42 minute mile. Here are my splits per my Garmin:

Mile 1 – 7:59
Mile 2 – 7:26
Mile 3 – 7:42
Mile 4 – 7:22
.05 – :17

Total mileage – 4.05 miles in 30:48

It was a really great race and I was happy with my time. I’ve got another 4-miler in December that I’m even more excited about now.

After the race, I showered quickly and then headed out for a blogger brunch. More on that in the next post!!

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes – Yes please!

Good afternoon blog world! Happy Friday! I am super excited for the weekend, but it’s going to be a busy one.  What are my plans? Glad you asked!

Tonight will be low-key and I am enjoying that idea. Saturday I plan to run the Central Park loop in the a.m. and then meet up with some long-lost friends for dinner later. But it will be an early night since I have a race on Sunday morning. I’m running the Race to Deliver – 4 miler. Then I’ll be heading to a fun blogger brunch in the early afternoon! Somewhere in there I also need to clean the apartment. Less than fun.

What are your plans for the weekend?!

I had a few notable eats from yesterday that I thought I’d share. I haven’t been posting most of my meals lately. But here’s a few. Yesterday I had blueberry oatmeal. I simply cooked in some frozen blueberries and it was delicious!

 

Last night’s dinner was an easy one. We STILL do not have gas in our apartment building, but I hear whisperings of progress. I maintain my less than optimistic stance. So I made myself a fried egg sammy on the hot plate with a side of strawberries.

Then for dessert I finished up the last pumpkin cupcake that my mother forced on us when we were upstate last weekend. Cream cheese frosting – how divine!!

Here is my momma’s delicious recipe for the cupcakes and frosting.

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes
 
 2 cups flour                                                                
1 cup butter softened
1  (3.4 oz) pckg. instant butterscotch pudding mix         
1 cup white sugar
2 tsps. baking soda                                                     
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbls.  cinnamon                                                        
4 eggs
1/2 tsp. ground ginger                                                   
1  tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. allspice                                                           
1  (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp. ground cloves                                                   
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven  (ohh to have an oven!) 350    Grease or line 24 muffin cups.
 
Cream butter, white and brown sugar with mixer til light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla and pumpkin puree.  Mix all dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture.  Add walnuts.  Bake 350 about 20 minutes.   
 
Cream Cheese Frosting
 
1  8 oz. cream cheese- softened
2 tbls. butter – softened
1  lb. box confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
 
Mix til thoroughly combined and creamy.

Have a great weekend all!

The Trifecta: Restaurant, Book & Movie Reviews

Good afternoon all! I know I promised you a book and restaurant review today and I wanted to get them up earlier, but then I decided to just lump them together with a movie review and make a GIANT post. My apologies in advance for the length. So let’s begin.

Restaurant Review

Nobu
I was admittedly very excited when I learned that Hubby’s co-workers were planning a dinner at Nobu that would include significant others. Score! Besides being excited to see some of his co-workers and their signficant others I’d met before, as well as meeting some new team members, more importantly, I was thrilled to hear we would be gathering at Nobu!!

And so it was that I left work last Thursday and headed to Nobu on 57th. The restaurant is actually a bit hidden and set inside a little covered area.

Once our party arrived, we were escorted upstairs and Bill’s boss promptly spotted Ace from American Idol. For those who know me, I’m awful at spotting celebs, so I truly appreciate when people spot them and point them out to me. Apparently, I am oblivious.

Once we got down to business with the Nobu menu, I turned from oblivious to clueless and overwhelmed. Thankfully, I was with some people in the Nobu-know who guided our table to make the right selections. The downside of that – I’m at a loss to tell you what some of these pictures are. I will do my best…

Pretty sure this was the sashimi salad.


Some sort of mushroom salad that was soo tasty.


Rock Shrimp – Hubby’s favorite and might be mine as well. This was amazing. A must-order if you ever go.


Holy sushi and sashimi selection! All the ones I tried were amazing.

All of the food was soo delicious. I’m sorry I can’t go into more detail – I wish I had paid more attention during the ordering. There were also some other dishes that I didn’t post because  literally had no clue what they were. There wasn’t  a single thing that we ordered that I did not like. However, it was not a cheap meal by any means. That is my word of warning to everyone. Be prepared to spend some dough. And also be prepared to see some of the most pretentious and well-dressed people you’ve ever seen. There were some people there like our table – low-key, fun and laid back. But you could also spot a ton of uptight business folk or freshly bo-toxed glamazons . And I swear to you that just as we were about to leave the Jonas Brothers came in, but they were seated behind a wall and I knew it would be inappropriate to try to scale it. Not that I’m a fan of the JBs – just desperate to actually recognize some celebs from time to time.

Book Review

The Girl Who Played With Fire

By: Stieg Larsson
[photo source]

I’ll assume that if you want to read this book or already bought this book that you’ve read the first book: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. If not, I’d like to kindly ask you to stop right there and go back to the first book. You can not read the second book in this trilogy without reading the first.

That being said, this book does have a completely new story-line, but you need the history to gain the full understanding. It’s so difficult to explain Larsson’s plot line within these books. I’ll leave it at saying that  Lisbeth Salander is back and is working with journalist Mikael Blomkvist again on unraveling some criminal activities and mysteries. However, the relationship between Salander and Blomkvist has changed drastically since we last heard from them, so that adds a twist to the feel and direction of the plot.

General thoughts on this book – it made me immensely nervous right from the beginning. I was terrified for Lisbeth and worried about what would happen to her next. I felt this way a little bit in the first book, but this book intensified those feelings and did so right from the start.

As per Larsson’s first book, it’s a fast-paced, intriguing page turner. I cancelled plans and skipped the gym to go home and read this book. I did not want to put it down. However, toward the end there were a few details and situations here and there that I found to be a bit unbelievable or far-fetched. This disappointed me momentarily, but did not affect my overall opinion of the book.

The end of this book way okay, but nothing entirely amazing. Overall though, if you liked the first Larsson book, I can pretty much guarantee you will enjoy this one as well. But remember – it’s not for the faint of heart, there are some serious thrills and chills in these books.

Movie Review

Get Him to The Greek

We watched this movie last night and I have to be honest and say that it did not live up to my expectations. Perhaps it was because before we popped in the Netflix DVD, we had been watching “The Hangover” on HBO. It’s hard to think anything is as hysterical as that movie. So maybe not such a good pre-movie choice.

Regardless, this movie has its funny moments. Hubby doesn’t really like Russell Brand, but I found him to be amusing and a pretty decent actor. He’s got potential. His character reminded me of the washed up rock star from “Love Actually.” Now that was a great movie.

Anyway – this is a short movie and it’s probably better off that way. You’ll enjoy it if you go in with some realistic expectations and a willingness to forgive some predictability. I did really like that they tied it to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” – now that was another great movie! Somehow, I doubt that I’ll ever say that about this movie though.

That’s all folks!!

November Wedding Fun!

Wow I’ve been busy. This weekend was crazy and hectic and I can’t believe Monday is already over. I’ve been a bad poster lately. I am postponing my Nobu review until tomorrow, when I will also have my recap for The Girl Who Played With Fire. Yup, I finished it already.

Instead, here are some highlights from this weekend and my friend Jess’s wedding!

All the girls! Aren’t we just gorgeous?! 🙂 Hehe

Isn’t Jess’s hair gorgeous?!! She always has fab hair, but it looked extra amazing.


Me and Hubby enjoying the wedding and looking dapper!


I had to use a flash to get this meal. It was yummy. Chicken with veggies and then there was a risotto mushroom type of bake.


I also partook in the Venetian dessert table. And totally forgot to snap a shot of the actual cake, which was chocolate and delicious. But I was in love with the other desserts as well.

Much dancing and silliness ensued with all our friends. The wedding went until 1:00 a.m. and then we headed out and I went right to bed.  Congratulations to Jess and Bob! It was a fantastic wedding and a great time was had by all, I would certainly say.

Despite the late night and partying, I felt pretty good the next morning and decided to get in a run since it was absolutely gorgeous outside. I ran a quick 4+ miles in the sun.

Mile 1 – 8:52
Mile 2 – 8:12
Mile 3 – 8:02
Mile 4 – 8:54
.32 – 2:27

Total – 4.32 in 36:28. Average pace – 8:27 minute miles.

The rest of my day was spent grocery shopping and doing laundry and then heading back to NYC fairly late at night. Hence my feeling a bit frazzled.

So it’s a quick post today, but I promise a more in-depth post tomorrow with two reviews. Brace yourself! Can everyone else believe that Thanksgiving is next week? I can’t. It totally came out of nowhere.

A Busy Saturday Upstate

Good morning – happy Saturday. I’ve got a really great restaurant review coming your way soon, but I can’t spend enough time on it right now to do it justice , so I’m holding off. I’ll just give you one teaser: Nobu.

It’s Saturday morning and I just got back from a great 10 mile run with Lauren. However, I  may have “misguided” her somehow into believing that this run was part of my training plan for the Boston Marathon. When in actuality, this run was part of my pre-training and kind of just for fun. 🙂

Here are the stats from our run…

Mile 1 – 8:48
Mile 2 – 8:50
Mile 3 – 8:44
Mile 4 – 8:54
Mile 5 – 8:44
Mile 6 – 8:34
Mile 7 – 8:35
Mile  8 – 8:23
Mile 9 – 9:38
Mile 10 – 9:00
.14 – 1:08

Total: 10.14 miles in 1:29:17.  Average pace – 8:49 min miles
 
I thought this was an awesome run overall! I felt great and even though it was chilly at the beginning, I quickly warmed up.
 
I’m upstate this weekend for my friend Jess’s wedding tonight at the Century House. Should be awesome!!
 
Time to sign off and run some errands before the wedding festivities tonight! Have a great weekend all!

Tag, You’re It!

So it’s Wednesday night right now and I’m about to sit down to eat this…

Yum to a grilled cheese with apple. Love it! I just got home from work a little bit late and didn’t make it to the gym for a run.  Last night I didn’t make it either, but it wasn’t work stopping me.

Alright, I’ll fess up and tell you what I did last night instead of hitting the gym like I had intended. I got on the subway yesterday evening after work and cracked open my current book: The Girl Who Played with Fire. I proceeded to fly through about 40 pages on the ride home and then promptly got off the subway and beelined it home to read more instead of going to the gym. I know – I am officially a nerd. I then proceeded to eat an entirely unhealthy dinner because I couldn’t tear myself away from the book.

Ok, I’ll tell you what I ate – 1/4 of a bag of tositoes and a few white oreos with milk. Sick I know. They were within reach and did not require putting my book down. Bad healthy living blogger – bad!

I then ignored all the shows on t.v. and buried my nose in my book from about 6 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. when my eyes began to close against their will.

Just as I thought the book had released its grip on me, I spent the rest of the evening tossing and turning in a fitful unrest. I blame the book for this unrest because, well, it’s kind of disturbing at times and I think I subconsciously brought my fear to sleep with me. But it is certainly a gripping book.

Tonight I did better as far as eating a decent dinner. But…the book is calling my name. Once this dinner is done, all bets may be off and I may find myself curled up in bed reading until 1 a.m. I really hope not because I have some serious plans to get up early tomorrow morning.

Anyway – that’s my big unhealthy confession for yesterday. Now, before I succumb to the call of the book, I’ll answer a few questions that Katie tagged me to respond to…

1. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Back in upstate NY. I know it’s so boring, but I miss our families and upstater friends. I’m hopeful that things might work out so that we can head back that way someday.

2. What has surprised you the most about blogging?
That many times it comes easily, but other times not at all. Some days I can sit down and write a post in 15 minutes and feel extremely pleased with how everything came out. Other times, I’ll sit there for hours and the final post is anything like I had hoped it would be.

3. What food could you not live without?
Oh man, such a tough one. I’m going to go with cereal on this one. I’ve been better about switching things up for breakfast, but I think if someone banned cereal completely I might have a break down.

4. You have a Saturday all to yourself.  How would you spend it?
Get up around 8, go for a nice long run with my friend Lauren. Come home, shower and then eat at the Creperie. Go shopping for a bit and find tons of  amazing size 5 shoes on sale! Have a lovely lunch. Spend the evening with Hubby and friends for a nice dinner and drinks. Bed by 12-1 a.m. I’m sooo boring.

5. What is/was your major in undergrad?
English!

6. Are you in the field that you thought you would be when you were younger?
Not exactly. I thought I’d be a journalist or a novelist. I’m in communications – so it’s not too far off. Maybe there will be a novel someday…

7. How often do you blog?  Why?
A good week, I blog about 5 times a week. I have had some slumps and slower months, but I try for about 4-5 times a week. It also depends if anything interesting is going on.

Now I tag Kelly, Jocelyn, Britt, Ashley, Holly, Megan and Dori to answer these questions if they so choose:

1. Why did you start your blog?
2. Salty or sweet food? You can only pick one.
3. What’s your favorite time of day to workout? (morning, lunch, night, etc.) And why?
4. You have to recommend a favorite book to a friend – what do you suggest?
5. Do you think you’ll be blogging in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years? Why or why not?
6. List 3 of your favorite blogs (I know everyone has many more than 3, but I challenge you to list only 3)?
7. What was your very first job?