First Class Panda

Wall Decorating - Take 1

2012-02-11T16:09:00.002-05:00

We got the idea to do a randomized wall of photos over our couch from Young House Love and admittedly it didn't turn out exactly how it was envisioned, but the point of this was to put something over our couch that wasn't Nothing. We used a mixture of actual photos and prints like The Dog by Picasso (art.com), an elephant print from Etsy, and a couple magazine cut outs just to add texture/interesting colors... of course one of them is food from Bon Appetite.

I know that the square frames aren't technically white like the rest of them. We are either going to spray paint them or replace them when we find something else in about the same dimensions. It's not perfect - I think that the right side could use a bit more, but hey, it's a far cry from a stark blue wall! Plus we were dealing with that weird thingy on the wall that is somehow connected to the old security system. This is one of those evolving projects. This is a good starting point and we'll likely be replacing as we find other interesting frames or shapes as time goes on keeping the white theme across the board.

This project took forever (three weekends) although we move at the speed of snails. I taped up pieces of magazines in the exact dimensions of the frames we bought at Ikea and arranged and rearranged them a million times, and then I had Abe do it and I was like: ok, that works, we're done. We then replaced each piece of paper as we went with the frames using very tiny finishing style nails so we wouldn't leave behind a mess if we ever changed our minds later on. The result is a really simple and inexpensive way to decorate a wall (the frames were sooooo inexpensive at Ikea!) and we have some leftover frames for other places in the house so it was a win/win.

Next project is hanging curtains in the dining room - once they get here. Curtains took me like months and months to find because I was really undecided on how to deal with them. I really wanted to add some color to the room since the walls are light gray and the furniture is dark brown, but there are 3 windows which means I couldn't go too crazy with the print since it would be like A Lot of print there. In the end I decided on something very neutral in color but with a lot of texture and some fancy looking rods. We've had the rods for a long time just sitting in their boxes all kinds of lonely (by Martha Stewart). I can't wait to get that stuff up - a dining room doesn't look quite finished without some kind of window treatments. Also, it faces the street so the windows look all kinds of weird that you can look right into the room and even further into the kitchen.

Things are moving along - slowly.

Product Updates

2012-02-04T09:46:00.000-05:00

I am crazy about a few things these days, but especially my skin and decorating the house. Both are coming along nicely.

I'm always crazy about my skin, but it's come to a whole new level of insanity. Now I have hormonal acne which tends to never go away, under eye circles from lack of consistent sleep, and little sun mark / freckle things. There are a couple newer products that I'm totally in love with.

Boscia's Restorative Eye Cream

I love this cream mainly because it's so hydrating and I get really dry skin all around my eyes in the winter. I didn't even realize how dry I had become until I started seeing the benefits of this after a few days. I'm not sure if it's curing my under eye circles but it is certainly helping with the puffiness. I was told to use this morning and night, but I've switched to using it just at night because it does sort of affect how your makeup is applied. Wearing eyeliner with it is sort of asking for it to smudge. You only need a teenie tiny bit per eye because it's so thick and creamy so this one bottle will last a really long time. Love it.

Colorscience pro Sunforgettable Mineral Powder

I'm a little bit confused by this product because the one I have is SPF 30 and there are others that go up to SPF 50, however when I was gifted this item it seemed to be just a mineral powder foundation. Apparently it's more than that which is nice and also explains the hefty price tag of $45 for a full sized jar. It claims to be very water resistant and feel light as air providing light coverage - and it does all this. I love the feel of it, and it doesn't come off as easily as Bare Escentuals. My skin feels less oily when I wear it, so that's cool.

Benefit: They're Real, Mascara

I hate that I love this mascara so much, the name is so stupid, and I totally know that I've talked about it before. The more I use this though, the more I like it and I've totally forsaken any other mascara in my makeup bag. There is a little spiky stub at the end of the brush that you can use to elongate lashes in the middle and all around, you don't have to just use it at the ends - that makes a big difference. $22, totally worth trying because it will change your idea of what lashes should look like and it's very water resistant.

This post is kind of boring to those who don't like products, and especially to my dog.

She's just mad because I've watched 9 episodes of Spartacus and she apparently doesn't like gladiators or Romans or something.

Birthday!

2012-01-30T17:17:00.000-05:00

It's here, today is my birthday and I turned 30. There are a few drawbacks to turning 30: my body not quite feeling young anymore (way more aches and pains), some sun damage spots on my face, and the amount of stress that I feel. I think there are way more positives with this age: I make more money now than I did when I was younger, my job is better, I am in a really good relationship, I have more life experiences, and I'm just in a really good place. I don't know why people fear birthdays like this. On Saturday, someone asked me if I was 19. I'm not even kidding, and he certainly wasn't kidding either. I do look young for my age, but I use eye cream and I carry a mortgage so you know... 19 isn't even close.

I had such a nice birthday weekend with my family (Abe and Mia). Saturday I took Mia to the dog park where she met her first boyfriend! When we got home Abe and I worked on some decorating. We hung a bunch of frames behind our couch where before there was just blank wall and it really makes a huge difference. He did such a good job! Later on, we found a neighborhood kid to feed Mia and take her out to the bathroom while Abe and I had dinner at Troquet in Boston. I generally don't like to leave her at home if I can help it, I just feel too guilty about leaving my baby all alone for a long time. I'll get over it at some point. The food at Troquet was to die for (I got the duck). I mean sure we haven't been out to a nice dinner since before we moved in August, but I'm telling you it was one of the most amazing meals that I've had. I think it's one of those hidden gem type places because nobody has heard of it or knows where it is, but it's better than most big name restaurants in the city. On Sunday I took Mia to the park again and she got to run around with 13 other dogs (total chaos). Later we had dinner with my parents at a local place called The European, but even that food was really delicious and exceeded expectations. My mom made my favorite cake in the world (yellow cake from a box with chocolate frosting) and gifted me the most thoughtful gift - my nana's ring. It's really all I wanted in the world for my birthday and somehow she knew without me having to say anything about it - and my mother does Not know me very well as a person. Abe also got me a very thoughtful and practical gift - an upgrade to my diamond earrings. They're now a very nice size and I'll never need another upgrade to them. Yeah, there's a lot of bling over here but I'm All about jewelry so these were the ultimate gifts. Some girls like shoes, some girls like handbags, but I like jewelry!

Unfortunately I'm kind of sick with something so I feel like crap and haven't been sleeping, but fortunately I took the day off anyhow and I've been taking it easy after a quick trip to Costco for some Super Bowl party supplies. Abe is making me a glorious dinner of roasted chicken, carrots, parsnips and Israeli cous cous. Having dinner made for me is a mega-treat, and Abe is a really good cook!

This has been one of the best birthdays in recent memory, everyone in my life made me feel really special and I truly appreciated it. I wish that tomorrow wasn't just another day...

[I got a remote for the camera... we need more practice...]

My Birthday is Coming

2012-01-25T20:40:00.000-05:00

I lost my phone... in the yard. I've never lost my phone before, it was tragic but I actually don't really mind all that much because I sort of hated that phone. The only sad part is all the photos I had stored on it, but like, whatever. I do need to manually enter in all my contacts again into another phone but it's not such a bad thing - I don't think I need phone numbers of people I haven't talked to in 4-5 years. I guess it's sort of like spring cleaning for an idiot.

This has been a pretty busy work week for us, so we really just need to power through it to the weekend when - dun dun dun - I turn 30. Some people shed tears over this milestone, but I'm not really all that emotional and turning 30 is just like turning 29 to me. Another year has passed and I've checked off a bunch of stuff that I wanted to achieve. I guess maybe if you hadn't checked off a bunch of stuff, then you'd be all upset about meeting 30 without doing all those things... so if you're reading this and under the age of 30 then try and get shit done to avoid feeling bad/old.

I'm not one to make a big deal out of things like this. 1. it makes me feel like a really selfish person to make demands of other people. Like those people who are like "it's my birthday, we have to go to this restaurant and then this club and you have to get me lots of gifts, etc." I think those people are jerks, or I've just really outgrown that. 2. just because it's my birthday doesn't mean that the world needs to come to a complete pause and revolve around me. 3. i can't stand being the center of attention, it gives me a rash. 4. i very much prefer small intimate events.

So yes, it's my birthday weekend but it will be pretty low key. Saturday Mia and I will be heading to the dog park while Abe works for a while. Later, we'll be trusting a neighbor to come feed her dinner and let her out while the adults head into the city for a nice dinner date - we haven't done this since August before we moved and had a dog! I'm really hoping that this teenager works out and we can have her come by on most weekends to give us a break and relieve guilty conscious about leaving Mia at home in her crate. Sunday, I'll be seeing my parents for a birthday lunch at a local restaurant. Monday (my actual birthday) we took the day off to relax and unwind a bit. I never work on my birthday if I can help it - my one little indulgence. This year Abe is taking the day off with me which is a great little perk - Mia will still be going to daycare though, she needs the exercise.

Hopefully, I won't lose anything else this week and it will be a major win!

Timber!

2012-01-17T22:18:00.000-05:00

It happened.

I went years and years before being an idiot enough to slip and fall on ice. Luckily it was in my own driveway... unluckily I went down hard and to add insult to injury I hit myself on the car before hitting the ground. Mia is sometimes really stubborn with her recent fear of the hall to the garage so sometimes I have to get her out the front door to put her into the car for daycare. Last night it snowed, not much, but enough to coat the ground in a light fluffy snow covering anything underneath. I knew there was ice, so I was very careful getting from the steps down the path and to the driveway with her. I put her in the backseat and had to run around the back of the car to get to the other door in order to clip her in securely. I took about three steps while I quickly made my way around, and it happened so fast that it was like magic. My arms and legs flailed all around, I hit my elbow on the trunk, and then belly flopped right on top of it landing flat on my face covering my entire front with snow. I'm pretty sure that I screamed, but Abe didn't hear anything besides a loud thump and then he realized that I was missing. By the time he put two and two together, I was already up and brushing myself off.

Oh the agony. It was very painful, and for a split second I thought that I might have broken something but once the sting went away a few minutes later it was cool - just a major bump resulting in a bruise. Stuff like this hardly ever happens to me, in fact, I'm the person that laughs at other people this sort of stuff happens to so it was my turn for sure!

The rest of my day went better until it was time to take the dog out after daycare. I had her leash in my hand and then suddenly it just wasn't in my hand anymore... and girlfriend went sprinting across the yard at full speed in total darkness. She tasted freedom and wanted more. Mia ran around in a few crazy circles enjoying the snow and being off leash, and eventually she came right back to me to play. Thank God she is such a playful dog, otherwise she'd be sending us postcards from Mexico!

It's only Tuesday, the rest of the week will surely be less chaotic...

Back on the Treadmill

2012-01-16T21:27:00.000-05:00

Things that happened this weekend.

Our new treadmill arrived and Abe magically assembled it!
I ran on Saturday and Sunday (only 20 minutes each time because I had no muscle strength to go on) and I'm So Sore - like entire body sore: arms hurt from pumping away, abs hurt from stabilizing, and inner thighs hurt the very most. I guess sitting on your ass isn't the same as actual exercise. I'm happy with the model that we chose and there is a little ledge for my iPad to sit so I can watch streaming videos while getting my butt kicked. You can kind of see Mia investigating the situation, she tried to hop on with me and almost went tumbling off. It didn't work out too well for her.

The Marathon Olympic trials were on tv - woot!
I'm biting my lip as I read Running Times, watch the race, and pet my dog all at the same time. Multi-tasking at it's laziest. I am not a track person, like it's not even worth talking to me about (there's this guy who sits near me who tries to talk to me about that stuff and it's like: dude, I ONLY care about the marathon, so just stop, your glory days are over man). I'm really happy that Meb won the men's race, and I expected Desi to win the women's race but she did really well and still made the team. One thing that I wasn't expecting was to not see Deena Kastor in the lead pack at all - she did just have a baby this year. I really wished that NBC had aired this live, watching it hours after I already knew the results from Twitter made it a little bit less exciting - but as you can see Mia was thrilled.

We thought it would be a brilliant idea to go to Ikea on Monday... it was so far from brilliant but it was necessary, everyone and their screaming kids were there. You'd think that at this age Ikea might not be as interesting, but where else can you buy frames for $2? I had to buy like a lot of frames today, somewhere around 15-20 for a new project going on so this was really the place to go. I also finally organized my closet it a little bit more by taking care of my shoes with these mesh boxes (I fit two pairs per box). This might be a "for now" solution, but it works nicely and makes my closet look a lot more spacious.

Yeah, that was a super crazy long weekend! Would it help if I mentioned that we finally made it to the British Beer Company for burgers and beers today? No? Well, that's all I've got.

Amazing Stuff

2012-01-13T10:10:00.000-05:00

Newest obsessions:

Where's My Water game on my iPad. It's similar to Angry Birds. I spend hours playing this stupid game just so I can get Swampy his water to take a shower. - 99 cents.

Game of Thrones books by George R. R. Martin. If you like things like The Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, or anything similar then you will like these. They are very adult and a very good and long read. There are a lot of characters so prepare yourself for a complex ride. - more or less $25

Young House Love. A blog by a couple who is redesigning and remodeling their home full-time. They are super creative and are able to do most projects on the cheap. I really love their style, and I am even taking on one of their projects this weekend! More to come. - Free

Benefit They're Real Mascara is truly one of the best mascaras that I've ever used. I was really apprehensive of this... like what makes it so good? It really is that good though. - $22

Davines Melu Serum - Split End Treatment is something that I use on my hair everyday after showering. I'm wearing my hair long these days and a little bit of this just on the bottom 2 inches of my hair is making a huge difference in keeping it healthy and also it's somehow eliminating my usual winter static. - more or less $25

Shameless on Showtime with Emmy Rossum and William H. Macy. Van from Reba is also in the show playing basically the same character. It's a show about a poor family with an alcoholic father who is trying to pay the bills hiliariously. The show is 30% smoking, 30% drinking, 20% sex, and 20% drama. This is the only premium channel that we get (for Dexter) and I'm so glad that we do. Check it out!

Goodbye 2011

2012-01-01T10:39:00.000-05:00

2011 was a huge year for us in all areas of life, but mostly the growing up part.

Vacations: Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Cruise (Costa Maya, Island of Roatan, Cozumel), Falmouth/Martha's Vineyard, Vegas with a special visit to Area 51

Big Decisions: Bought a car in June, Bought a house in August, rescued a dog in September, Bought a second car in December

Biggest Challenges: Hosted Thanksgiving (8 people) and Christmas (15 people), and moving... moving is always a massive project, but luckily this is the last time we have to do it for a long time.

My favorite part of the whole year is just how far we've come seemingly overnight. We used to be those city people who went out to bars on weekends (even at this age) and now we're total country mice who spend our money on things like Home Depot and doggie daycare. I'm finally starting to feel settled here and I really love where I am right now in life. Our jobs are going really well, and financially we're pretty sound although we do still play the lottery!

2012 should be another exciting year - I will be turning 30, we have a billion house projects on tap for the spring (some exterior siding, landscaping, hardwood flooring, painting, decorating, etc.), there might be another dog joining us (uncertain), a couple fun vacations are pending, and hopefully we can find a better life balance (we really need to go on more fun dates).

Also, I'm starting out 2012 with much darker hair. Goodbye halfway grown out highlights. Goodbye natural hair color... oh well, at least it's all 1 shade now.

Disaster Area

2011-12-31T11:38:00.000-05:00

We had a birthday party at our house last night. Only 6 people and 1 dog came over, but it looks like 16 people were here...

Holy cow. NYE is going to be very painful for a few people this year. I went to bed by midnight because I worked on Friday so I was tired, but the peeps sort of kept me up and stayed up until 3:30am. That time of the morning is Obscene! We're all exhausted today, including Mia.

Last Day of Vacation

2011-12-28T11:23:00.001-05:00

This has been the most active Christmas vacation in recent memory: loads of cooking, family time, cleaning, organizing, buying big expensive shit, and just checking stuff off our to-do list. I've done a lot over the past few days, but the items the stand out to me the most:

How to Not sell a car.

We test the new Ford Focus. It was a piece of shit, don't even bother if you want a car that will survive New England roads. VW takes us for 2 test drives - the 2012 Passat and 2012 Jetta. We only liked the newer body styles. Unexpectedly we loved the fully loaded Passat, the drive was really smooth and overall comfortable. We sit down to talk about price and our sales guy Would Not Budge. He went from being a friendly old grandpa to being an unreasonable Turd. Finally we realized that the highest level Passat wouldn't come down to our price range, so we could try the next model down and then they argued about Literally $10 per month until we were both willing to get up and walk away. It wasn't so much that the $10 per month was going to break the bank, but it was more than that - we just knew that they could come down more and they just weren't. So we get up and walk out the door, we're pulling out and the manager comes running out, "blah blah blah we can bring it down to within $4 of what you wanted...blah blah" so we're just like, "ok, we're going to eat lunch... we'll call you." We eat lunch, and then they call again and say "Ok, we'll match your offer, will you come back and buy the car?" Answer: NO BITCHES. We went to Volvo, bought ourselves an awesome fucking car for way less headache, way less hassel, a better service plan, and basically the same price. I really don't think that they played that game right.

How To Buy a Treadmill.

Show up in full on running attire. Run on the darn things in the store - try all the features like turning on the fans, inclines, walking vs. running, programs, etc. How much noise does it make? How sturdy does it feel? Is there a place for your water and ipod? Is this something that you are actually going to use or is it going to collect dust more often than not? We found a mid range Sole model that we were pretty happy with and it was on sale. The highest model Precors that you see at gyms are Awesome, but in all honesty it's not going to melt your fat away and more than a mid-range model. This was a really fast purchase, we were in and out of the sporting goods store in 10 minutes. Unfortunately, it won't be delivered until January 13th...which means my full body pain will be delayed until then!

How to Try Something New and Love it.

We belong to Costco and so we tend to buy our cases of beer there for the holidays and just for ourselves - we drink a lot of beer (also the reason we need a treadmill). They change up the beer selection and this time there were cases of Guinness for something really cheap, like $24 or something, so Abe snagged one for Christmas. Christmas Eve was the first time that I've ever cracked open a Guinness and I drank the entire thing and Loved it. This was always a beer that I didn't think was for me - it looks so dark and full bodied, and my taste is usually lighter and stereotypically girly. If you are afraid of this beer because it looks too dark for you, just ignore the color, and you will find that it's actually a very light tasting and feeling beer. I can't wait to have one tonight! I know this is one of those things that most people have figured out much earlier in life, but I'm stubborn.

Surprises.

My mother and father in law offered to bring us a piece of their old furniture up from Florida. They moved from a huge house to a condo and then bought another house so they've been going through their stuff for what seems like years now trying to get rid of things - but they hate the idea of throwing things out. At first I was thinking that this was going to be a terrible idea, I mean who wants a really old Korean chest? It sounded like something that we would take and probably hide somewhere in a room that nobody uses. The look of surprise on my face when it entered the house must have been priceless, I loved it right away. It's very small and fits perfectly in our entrance way, which is a tricky area due to size restrictions. I'd been looking for something to put against that wall for months now but couldn't find anything small enough, and then BAM in came this antique chest. I will try to find something to put on top of it this week, but like most things, it will likely take a lot longer.

I go back to work tomorrow, and this place is still a dump. If you will be on vacation for the rest of the week, please enjoy it!

Christmas Miracle

2011-12-26T18:52:00.000-05:00

This year we hosted Christmas for the very first time at our new house. Abe's entire family came over from all over the east coast for the holiday - 15 people total... meaning 17 (7 of which were kids) of us plus 1 dog. This was no easy task but overall it went over much more smoothly than imagined. 6 people stayed at the house, 5 people in a hotel nearby, and 4 live close enough that they could commute over a few days.

The hardest part about hosting this many people is meal planning: breakfast x 3, lunch x 3, and dinner x 2. Breakfast was simple enough, just scrambled eggs with bagels and coffee. Lunch was Papa Ginos on day 1, a mess of Raman style noodles with kim chi and rice on day 2, and pasta with sweet Italian sausages and salad on day 3. Dinner on Christmas Eve was Chinese delivery and beers with mac and cheese for the kids, and on Christmas day it was a gigantic prime rib with mashed potatoes, salad, steamed green beans and rice and kim chi of course with wine. Each meal was followed by a large array of desserts that seemed to never end. I didn't plan ahead as much as I probably could have - we went back to the grocery store once, but we also only have 1 fridge and I know many people with houses tend to have 2 just for this purpose.

The kids were kept happy with the Wii and all the new toys that Santa delivered (oh my God, So Many Toys!) so it was a lot less loud and chaotic than it normally is on these kinds of holidays. We are lucky enough to have a fully finished and warm basement for them to play in, and that made a huge difference. This was also the first time that I could speak up and "yell" at them when they were out of line with each other, and unexpectedly they totally listened to me.

Abe did most of the cooking and I did most of the cleaning, which we're both happy to do because we really go crazy when there are too many people in the kitchen. That sort of madness is not welcome here, and usually that's exactly what it's like coupled with people yelling at each other and bumping into one another while a kid is pulling on a shirt and asking for more juice. My mother and father in law barely lifted a finger when it's usually them who do the bulk of the work and I think this was very welcome to them and also surprising.

Mia fared well with everyone in the house. She barked at the kids as expected, but she did get used to them after some time. We tried a vibrating bark collar on her for Day 2 and it worked, but it also made her really weary of everything. Once we took it off after a couple hours, she acted as though she still had it on and behaved herself for the rest of the day. Mia even jumped into the annual family photo - unexpected and hilarious. She's very happy that everyone is gone now - and is also really confused as to where everyone went but is really enjoying her new toys that Santa brought. She had a bit of an embarrassing stomach ache but seems to be feeling better and is liking the quiet that our house normally holds - we are all enjoying the smaller volume of noise! Hopefully it lasts for a couple days...

Invasion

2011-12-24T08:39:00.000-05:00

The holiday invasion has begun... I don't feel equipped. Mia is afraid of everything already and it's going to get a whole lot more overwhelming this afternoon. I think the dog and I feel the same way. I tried to get her to pose with the bow on her head but of course that was the challenge to end all challenges. She shook it off, stole it, and then ran around with it like it was a new treasure. This is probably good since it was Almost like a Christmas gift, and we didn't get her anything yet...

Merry Christmas.

Challenges Now Being Accepted

2011-12-18T09:42:00.000-05:00

Last night, Abe and I tucked Mia into her crate and headed over to a friend's house in the city for dinner... dinner was made by a chef, dessert was made by a baker, entertainment provided by a new baby and later Trivial Pursuit. Going over to some one's house for dinner is one thing... going over to some one's house and having all natural red wine and cheese to start followed by a seafood soup with all sorts of things that you didn't even know were delicious, coupled with a really light salad and homemade croutons, is a completely different night. This was the best meal that I've had in the past 5+ months, I'm not even kidding here. Our friend is so talented when it comes to cooking, but the best part about it is that he always serves me things that I never would order on my own but still find delicious.

We hung out with their newish baby, and another couple was there who own a bakery (more on the baked goods to come). Once the baby went to bed, the real idiotness began. They insisted that we play Trivial Pursuit - Genius Edition. I was a little nervous because like the whole "genius" edition, I'm no genius. I believed my knowledge base to be current events, pop culture, and stupid shit that nobody cares about. It turns out that my knowledge base is Much broader than expected and includes even more stupid shit. I would like to thank The History channel and Tutenstein for all the shows I've seen on for the history of Egypt. I would like to thank other bloggers for the proper usage of Venn Diagrams. It also greatly helped that Abe seemed to know everything that I didn't (like Newt Gingrich has been married 3 times? Yeah, didn't know that.), and vice versa. This was the Only time that we've ever worked as a team during a game and not killed each other, because we cleaned house and Killed the two other couple teams. We hereby retire from this edition of Trivial Pursuit so we can go out on top!

After the slaughter, we were served chocolate cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar. They were like little lava cookies or something, like so super rich and decadent. THEN we were served tart cherry pie and let me tell you, tart cherry pie is a million times better than regular cherry pie. The desserts were fantastic and it always amazes me how crazy good our friends are at cooking and baking. In that respect, we've very much dead weight. I couldn't even find any flour in the house to make a dessert for later on - who doesn't have any flour?? We are however, the Trivial Pursuit - Genius Edition Champions!

Time is flying by

2011-12-17T15:10:00.000-05:00

Things that are going really well right now:

Work (surprisingly)
Having the Christmas tree in the house with Mia
Remembering to water the tree
The fact there is no snow yet
Our house maintenance (a few important repairs this week)
My vegetable eating initiative
Our second car hunt is looking up

There are plenty of items that need to get taken care of before Christmas but like whatever, one big run to Costco and 1 big order from Amazon should take care of most of these little issues. The rest is totally out of our control, but I've come to grips with the fact that all I can hope for is no major disasters. Mia will likely scare all the kids and that's expected, hopefully she is just able to get through a few days of madness. We had a huge breakthrough this morning at the dog park with a little girl around 8 years old. Mia did Not bark at her, and this is probably the first time in ages where she didn't... sure she jumped up on her but she does that with like every person in the world. Little victories are still important.

Holiday Lights

2011-12-14T16:35:00.001-05:00

How many boxes of lights would you say that one might need to light up only 2 bushes? My best guess was 4 because I am an idiot. We got 6 boxes just in case right after Thanksgiving and even that was Far from enough. Back to the store Abe went to pick up 6 more boxes but Of Course they were out of the exact ones that we picked up the first time. "White Lights" should be white no matter what the brand though right? Both were LED. This was a mistake. To make the best of a bad situation, we decided to simply alternate the strands so maybe it A. wouldn't be as obvious or B. would look intentional. I think it looks intentional, but it also looks really bad. This was the Only night that we actually put them on... we look like idiots.

My Jewish friend said they look like Hanukkah bushes, and I think she may be on to something. The blueish-ness really doesn't say Christmas. So this year we have a nicely decorated tree with matching lights, stockings, and a few other things that my mom dropped off today (think funny stuffed snowmen...) and that's where our holiday decorating ends. It's sort of sad, but only because we failed so miserably in execution. Next year, we'll do better! Abe wants to get one of those inflatable thingies to put in the yard. One of our neighbors has an inflatable Santa who sits in a helicopter and the propeller actually spins! I usually hate that crap, but I kind of like that one.

Oh wait, also, our friend gave us this guy:

It's a dog made out of mesh wire and lights. We put it up to be funny, but it was decidedly way too flimsy and ridiculous. The weakest wind would toss this thing across the road and then we'd have to go retrieve it at our neighbor's house and have to admit that it was really ours. It lives in the garage now but will probably come back out in later years.

Our Tree

2011-12-10T10:29:00.000-05:00

December 10th. It's not time to panic yet... I mean, it's slowly setting in. The reality is that I haven't done much Christmas shopping at all (notice the 1 gift under the tree so far). Our tree and our stockings are up, but that's where our holiday cheer ends. It just doesn't feel like Christmas yet.

I have no idea what to get anyone as far as gifts, and I don't even know what I'd want in my stocking. I could really use a vacation, but there's just no time for that right now. We will likely be getting a treadmill soon though, which is like big news. We have been completely inactive since September and we can really tell. I'm still down a bunch of lbs. but I'm like super soft, like marshmallow soft. Never in my whole life have I felt so... unfirm. The treadmill will be great in the winter, since joining a gym out here was less than appealing. Gyms in the burbs are filled with dads and high school kids. Gyms in the city are filled with people my own age. I think I'll stick to working out at home for now. Mia will even be joining the treadmill workouts. Her trainer uses the treadmill for his dogs to keep them active in the cold weather and Mia needs this as well since she has so much energy. A tired dog is a good dog.

I've also been noticing my poor diet lately... and it's bad. It seems that I only eat veggies 1/10 as often as I did this summer. My diet mostly consists of eggs, rice, and chicken. That doesn't sound all that bad but where are the fruits and veggies? MIA. After Thanksgiving, I ate pie every single day for like 7 days straight. At work each day, my friends and I have a "treat". This is either a piece of cake, a cookie, Pinkberry, a piece of candy, or a Rice Krispy Treat (mega sized). I've never been big into sweets, but these days they are a huge part of my daily intake since I'm really not eating as big of a quantity as usual. I am like a walking bag of sugar! I really need to clean this up and I know the holidays aren't really the time for this so I'm just going to try and eat some veggies at lunch in the very least and then phase out the treats after New Years or something. This is normal for the most part I think - to just get sucked into the holidays and forget to eat nutritious foods?

Back to Christmas shopping - am I being overly picky or is there just a lot less interesting gifts out there this year? I generally have no problems finding things for people but I go into stores now and Nothing looks appealing to me. Is this season less creative? Am I more picky? Neither answer will find me gifts for under the tree...

Christmas Shopping Guide

2011-11-30T11:54:00.004-05:00

Not Everyone needs help when it comes to Christmas shopping, but I always like to see what is on "Gift Lists". Below is my very own gift giving guide with the help of Polyvore.

Christmas Shopping Guide by firstclasspanda
Chanel Dress
Alice Olivia keyhole dress, $320
Markus Lupfer scoop neck t shirt, $185
Top Shop Knit top, $76
Ugg Pop Top Mittens, $75
Calvin Klein Underwear short top, $58
J Crew waffle shirt, $40
Forever21 crew neck top, $25
H M fur vest, £30
Alice Olivia scalloped skirt, $237
chasse tight lululemon athletica, $98
J.Crew Saturday pants, $50
Mimi Holliday by Damaris vintage bra, £38
Fleece lined legging pants, $18
Tory Burch leather shoes, $495
J.Crew patent leather shoes, $138
Steve Madden flat heels, $100
Rocket Dog shoes, $25
Ippolita rock earrings, $375
Dezso by Sara Beltran face ring, $290
Mulberry gold engraved jewelry bracelet, $270
Van Cleef & Arpels earrings $500+
J Crew knot jewelry, $50
Locket jewelry
Butter London Lacquer Nail Polish, $14
modern animal clock - elephant by decoylab at fawn&forest, $68
(STARBUCKS) Stainless Tumbler, 16 fl oz |, $1
COOLPIX S8100 from Nikon, $300
Opal Orb Ornament, $14

Power Tools and Powering Through Leftovers

2011-11-26T19:58:00.000-05:00

Ahhh Thanksgiving is over, but the weekend continues - Hail Mary.

We had friends over Friday night and we were really weird and ordered pizza and Chinese food because nothing says "party in the 'burbs" more than multiple deliveries. Also, nothing says Thanksgiving like vodka apple ciders - give it a try sometime. Some of them stayed over extending the party - or really extending the doggie playtime. Mia had lots of fun playing with the 2 other dogs, Mom got to sleep in, and Dad cut down a gigantic tree with a chainsaw and didn't hit the house so we all won a little bit today.

Cutting down a tree is a lot more complex than one might think. Obviously you need to control the direction that it falls down while taking into consideration the direction that it's already leaning. It also really helps to have a friend who has been certified in lumberjacking - I'm sure there is a more technical term for this but I can't remember what it is. We have total trust in this guy when it comes to anything outdoorsy or like farmer-like, so when the tree was falling towards the house I only let out a very quiet and reserved "ahhhh....ahhhh... ahhhhhhhh" and then it was down on the ground 5 feet from the deck. It turned out perfectly since anything that wasn't the house would be considered A-Ok. We had a bunch of things to do today, although this giant tree took up Abe's entire day because once it's down... it took hours for him to cut it into big pieces and move them off the lawn and it's not even complete yet. Why do trees have to be so big?

It seems like everyone has post-Thanksgiving workouts on their minds. For my workout I cleaned up what looked to be a woolly mammoth from the floors, did 3 loads of wash, cleaned up loads of beer bottles, did the dishes, and made a really awesome soup with leftovers. Sure it wasn't a treadmill interval workout but since it was spread out for a long period of time I think it's worth something.

Leftover Super Lazy Turkey Soup Recipe

Ingredients:
Turkey
Green Beans
Garlic
Onion
Chicken broth
Corn
Gravy
Pepper

Pour a little olive oil in a big pot, then add diced garlic and 1 onion stirring till mostly done, pour in 1 or 2 boxes of chicken broth (32 ounces each) depending on how much stuff you plan on throwing in. Bring to a boil and add in chopped up pieces of turkey and green beans, add corn and stir. I added in 4 massive scoops of leftover gravy, and some pepper to taste. You can skip the gravy if you think it's too weird, but it does add a nice flavor. Keep at a medium boil for 10-15 minutes and then you're ready to enjoy something easy but different than the same old leftovers.

Happy Turkey Day

2011-11-25T09:48:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving happened. I have no photos of food or table settings or anything other than my new awesome koala hat that makes me look like a little kid because we were running around all day long (I took Mia out on her morning walk in this stunning ensemble). The holiday went Ok overall - The food was fantastic (fresh turkey is the only way to go), we had just the right amount of people over, the dog was Not very well behaved at all, and the pile of dishes was gigantic. Hosting a holiday is no joke! I am sure that it gets easier each time you do it, but having to hold your dog's leash as you're trying to get sides into serving dishes is a challenge. Perhaps you have a more well mannered dog, a dog that doesn't bark at children, that would definitely be ideal! At least we have a boat load full of leftovers to pick at today and they may be even more enjoyable without having people standing around watching you put everything together.

If I was worried about Christmas before, I'm 20 times more worried about it now. The food we can handle, the kids we can handle, the dog with the kids is a whole different story. I love my dog, but she makes some things very difficult. We have 1 month to figure this out...

Holiday Stress Part I of Many Parts

2011-11-19T12:14:00.000-05:00

One of my many character flaws is that I am really easily stressed out over the most ridiculous things. At this moment I'm dying over us hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house. I've never ever in my life hosted anything more than having a few people over with beer so this is quite overwhelming to me. The part that initially threw me into a frenzy was that we don't have like any of what we need as far as stuff - platters, things to hold side dishes for that large of a group, we don't have enough serving spoons or even enough flatware, tablecloth, thank god the dining room table came, we need more chairs, a roasting pan for a turkey, a turkey baster, brining stuff, a butter dish, gravy boats, a fucking case of wine. So it's fine, I made a list of what we need and went to Homegoods and got what I could and came back and we're still sort of in rough shape, but oh well, what can I do at this point. The best part about my multiple Homegoods trips was how many strangers I talked to about the effing turkey platter. I'd hold something up and ask the nearest woman over 40, "how big of a turkey do you think this would hold?", or "do you think this could hold a 20 pound turkey". The women were all super nice, very helpful, and really gave it some thought. This was all so much better than calling my mother in the middle of a store in a panic and trying to figure out dimensions.

The next challenge of course is the actual food - we ordered a turkey from a farm and it comes with stuffing and gravy which is awesome. All we need to do is pick all that stuff up on Wednesday. I made a list of all the dishes that we are making, and who is bringing what, and from that list made another shopping list of ingredients. You'd think that this organization would make me feel better, but it doesn't. Sometimes seeing a huge list on paper just makes things worse!

The very last part of this anxiety ridden fun is that it will also be Mia's first holiday party, or her first time with a lot of people over petting her and there will be strangers and children. Hopefully she keeps her cool and doesn't scare anyone, and will be well enough behaved that we don't have to lock her up for the day. We'll see how it all goes soon enough...

Mid-Week Update

2011-11-17T13:18:00.001-05:00

A few awesome things happened this week:

Mia is home and is doing fantastically. Everyday she's showing us how far she's come.
Example 1: I took her a on long walk this morning and we passed another dog and owner, and while she wasn't exactly perfect there was no barking. She did try to go over to them to say hello though.
Example 2: Delivery guys came today and she didn't bark at them or try to jump on them. She was very nice to them even though they were huge and unfamiliar. She normally would have lost her mind in fear but she was such a good little girl.

Our dining room set was delivered this morning which is great because without it we wouldn't have enough space for everyone at Thanksgiving. This is the table without the two leaves, I wasn't able to insert them on my own... I think it's really a two person job to get the table open so it does appear to be a bit small. The chairs are the best part of the set, the crossback is just so gorgeous. The table itself is pretty nice too - I will Try to decorate this table top... and no I haven't done the coffee table yet either.

Last night for dinner I used some Trader Joe's Thai Red Curry sauce with our dinner and if you haven't used this yet and you like curry then you really need to. This was the first curry that I've had in months and I thought it was just amazing. A bottle is somewhere around $3 and there are no directions or anything, so this is what I did. 1 package of ground turkey cooked up on the skillet about 90% done, added sliced mushrooms and really skinny green beans in there, stirred it all up till things looked like they were cooking well, then added 80% of the bottle, stirred, and put the lid on to let the veggies steam a bit for 10ish minutes at medium heat. I served it on top of white rice, you can use brown if you are feeling fat... in which case, I do not suggest this meal. I'm going to go back and buy like 10 bottles, for the first time in a long time my craving for Thai was actually satisfied! It feels so good.

During our lunchtime walk today, we went through this really pretty neighborhood down the street a bit. There's a cul-de-sac and a little island that appears to be communally used for picnics and shit. These houses are big and beautiful if you want to live in an area where all your neighbors have houses that look Exactly like your own, that was one very minor downside. I could probably get over that pretty fast. However, something that I could Not stand for is the sound of the elementary school recess echoing throughout the place. It's probably a 5 minute walk away from this place but it was So Freaking Loud - Screaming children! My biggest nightmare. We only live a few minutes from this place, but we can't hear recess at all - or I'd die. It made me feel really good about our house choice - because there will Always Always Always be a catch when you think you've found a really nice house. Remember that when you house hunt, you really need to ask yourself: Why is this house less expensive than the awesome one down the street? or This house is almost perfect Except... and make sure you can live with that exception. I apparently can live with a 90s kitchen but I cannot live with loud noises!

And speaking of noise - I've just discovered Pandora radio, and I know that I'm probably the last person on the planet but I really am enjoying it while working from home. Check it out if you haven't already.
http://www.pandora.com/#

My Pup is Back!

2011-11-13T19:27:00.000-05:00

My sweet sweet dog has returned from her 3 week boot camp away with a dog trainer. She had a lot of issues but the main ones were:

Jumping on guests upon entry
Barking at stranger or other dogs on walks and in the car
Whining whenever someone left the room
Anxiety in the crate if we had to go do an errand

She was just all sorts of crazy but overall a really good and affectionate dog. We saw video progress reports of her on the trainer's Facebook page. There is a video of her walking on the leash the first week and again walking on a leash during the second week where she had clearly learned the "heel" position (right next to the handler going at the same speed). Walking with us is important, but what's more important is just her behavior in outside of the house situations...

When Jermaine brought her back, we went on a brief 20ish minute walk with her and he taught us how to handle her and use commands during the walking. It was really good luck that we also walked by a little girl on a razor scooter thingy and before Mia would have lost her mind over that - barking, jumping, trying to run to the girl. This time she looked...thought about barking - there were maybe even a teeny tiny start of a bark type noise, and then I corrected her and we continued on our way without incident. This same thing happened when we walked by another dog and stranger. She looked and acknowledged them, thought about barking but didn't, she was corrected, and we kept going. When I say that I'm correcting her, I'm just giving her a short tug on the leash or saying "Hey" to get her focus back. Jermaine was so great with her, we were both really pleased with the result knowing that she was treated very well and he really did seem awfully sad to see her go. We are going to have him back over when we get a treadmill so Mia can learn to walk on it to get more exercise : ) -- not all dogs need this, but we have a very high energy dog.

Later this evening, Abe got Mia to sit - down (lay down) - and then stay for a good 10-15 seconds before she wanted to get up and look for him. I was able to get her to come - sit - down - and then stay for a good 1 minute while I walked away and hid in another room. When I got back, she was laying right where I left her and didn't move until I gave her release word. If you have a psychopath dog, then I'm sure you understand what a major breakthrough that is! She's obedient and she understands that we are in charge and she no longer runs this ship. We will need to practice these commands on a daily basis with her to keep her sharp.

I'm so happy that she's back and our family is together again! Abe will need to do some traveling at some point and it's so much better having her here with me. Sure it's more work to do it all alone, but I'd much rather have good company and do a few extra things around the house. Tomorrow, we test out her doggy seat belt!

Coffee With a Side of Anticipation

2011-11-12T22:49:00.000-05:00

My caffeine intake for the rest of the week went a little bit better. Like most things, the beginning is the hardest part and it makes you want to tear your hair out but it gets easier.

Thursday
Commuter coffee + 1 cup of work coffee = 285mg of caffeine

Friday
Commuter coffee + Starbucks tall skinny vanilla latte (75mg) = 265mg of caffeine

Saturday
A large mug of coffee at home...which is probably 2 cups + 1 diet coke = 230mg of caffeine

So as you can see things are moving along nicely. I've been feeling tired the past couple of days but I haven't been sleeping well so it really had nothing to do with the caffeine intake. This is a habit like any other, if you find a way to keep busy then you probably won't think about it too much.

This morning, I dropped Abe off at the commuter rail this morning so he could go into the office and I could keep the car and do local errands. I went to Petco and Target, then returned home and it was already 11:30 which was too late to for me to have another cup of coffee anyhow. Instead, I had a little lunch and went straight outside to finish clearing away the branches from the yard that have been haunting my dreams. These damn branches have taken way more work than my time is worth but luckily my manual labor is free unlike hiring a lawn company (my friend with the same lawn size was given a quote of $600 to clear away her branches and she had less than we did! No thank you sir.) After a couple hours of than nonsense, I headed back inside and immediately rewarded myself with a Diet Coke - my favorite way to have it is poured from a can into a tall glass with ice (delicious) and then began to strip off my dirty clothing straight into the laundry room when I noticed that I had yet another tick crawling on me. I really don't understand how ticks are still alive right now in the middle of November. Later, I found another one crawling around when I was sweeping the kitchen floor. They were both definitely deer ticks so it's good that I wasn't bitten or anything, damn these stupid insects! It's bad enough that I had to spend the afternoon dragging really heavy shit into the woods, and then I had to deal with thoughts of lyme disease swirling in my brain too. Obviously I then I had to mop the kitchen floor like a maniac, but I guess it needed it anyhow.

Tomorrow is a big big day - my princess comes home from boot camp! She is being dropped off at 3pm with our trainer and then we're going to have an in-home session with her so that we can learn how to keep her good behaviors going and how to correct her if she begins to slip. Jermaine assures us that he has given her a sturdy base and we will need to work with her to keep all she learned going. I can't wait to see her! We gained a lot of freedom while she was gone, but we really didn't capitalize on it too much. There are a million house projects that we didn't get around to, but we were able to conquer some of the smaller ones so whatever. It will just be really good to have her home again!

Caffeine Addiction

2011-11-09T20:04:00.000-05:00

Well, that weekend caught up with me. I've been exhausted and sort of fighting some kind of illness ever since. Also I decided that my coffee habit was Beyond being a problem, so I've started to cut back on that which may also be a source of pure suffering. In the morning I take a commuter coffee into work with me which is probably around 14-16 ounces of coffee (2 actual cups) and then typically when I get to work I have 2 more Keurig 8 ounce cups totalling 32 ounces of coffee per morning. That seems totally excessive, and luckily I have the sense to stop all caffeine intake by noon because it has ruined my evening sleep if I have any in the afternoon. This week I've eliminated my second work coffee so I'm down to 24 ounces. If I really feel Blah after my first work cup, then I'll let myself have 1 cup of green tea. Ok, I've done that every day...

Just to get an idea of how much caffeine I'm talking about here below is a rough estimate:

coffee 95mg of caffeine
green tea 20mg of caffeine

I'm now down from 380mg to 305mg of caffeine per day and I'm going to keep this going through the weekend. On Monday I'll take it down another level to 230mg. I'm not really sure how it's going though since it was inevitable that I'd be really tired on Monday and Tuesday after a crazy weekend and I felt somewhat sick. My tolerance for stupid people has remained the same and I am still tired at the end of the day.

The coffee itself isn't so much a huge problem as what it's doing to my teeth. I have an obsession with keeping my teeth really white and lately I've been noticing that they aren't as nice as they used to be. Step 1 identify the problem and Step 2 begin to fix it. Hopefully Step 3 will be freedom from the need to have coffee all morning and whiter teeth. It's not such a bad thing if I can just get through this process!

Too Much!!

2011-11-06T17:00:00.000-05:00

O M G
This was the most productive weekend that we've had in a really long time - painfully so.

Saturday -
House cleaning top to bottom, even freaking mopping
Yard work: chainsawing the huge branches all over the yard
Lunch in Boston with friends at Sams (awesome restaurant)
Made dinner for sister and brother in law and 2 kids somewhat successfully
Went to Jordan's Furniture when they left at 8:30pm to buy a dining room set and second guest room mattress (furniture is now Done)

Sunday -
Woke up way too early and got coffee and breakfast
Hardware store
More chain sawing
Abe and a friend spent most of the day finishing up the repair to our shed which now looks great
I collected branches in the front yard and wheeled them all the way into the backyard to dump... 20 times but is now 90% done - woot! Only the entire back remains.
Went to Home Goods and bought - dog bed, 2 serving bowls for the holidays, dog toy basket, a big roasting pan with rack for turkeys, a dog treat jar, a couple kids toys, an extra blanket for one of the guest rooms, and a cheese grater - all for really cheap.
Grocery shopped
Picked up lunch and sped home
Did laundry including all sheets
Cleaned kitchen from last night's entertaining
Raked 1/2 of the front yard which is really only 1/8 of the entire yard, and it sucked
Abe made beef stew for dinner

And now I'm waiting for our night of postponed trick or treaters and we seriously both want to die a million deaths. We are both super freaking sore from all the manual labor and the only thing that would make tonight better is to just sit on the couch without having to get up to answer the door at all. I think that makes me a lazy jerk but I really feel like Halloween should have been cancelled all together, having it a week later just seems stupid to me. Then again, I'm not a parent, so maybe it's different from that perspective -- although I hear way more complaining about adults having to walk the kids around in the cold than anything else.

Since these past two days were packed full of ridiculous chores, the rest of the week is sure to be insanely lazy while we recover. Hopefully we have some leftover candy to lounge on the couch with.

Christmas Hoarding

2011-11-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

This Happened!
I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I'm slowly starting to buy my Christmas decorations because 1. I'm batshit crazy, and 2. We don't have many at all. My goal for these upcoming holidays is to begin to collect decorations and stuff like that without completely breaking the bank. These awesome stockings are from Pottery Barn for $16 including the free monogramming and free delivery.

I also bought a very pretty white and silver tree skirt for $24 at Marshalls yesterday. You can't really tell how truly awesome it is in this photo, it has really nice silver swirly detailing on the fabric. It's one of those things that makes me feel like an adult. 23 year olds don't need to worry about shit like tree skirts, but people close to 30 certainly do. We tend to wait until the last moment to deal with tree skirts and end up buying the most hideous thing ever for like $45 and think to ourselves, "WHYYYY must our tree be so ugly?!" Why do stores always run out of tree skirts, I mean it's so stupid. So I'm ready this year, I'm not going to feel cornered into buying something over priced and ugly.

We have a really busy weekend ahead. By 10am I had already had coffee, breakfast, mopped the floors, vacuumed all over, put stuff away, and Abe was outside taking a chainsaw to all of our fallen trees from last weekend. We have lunch plans and dinner plans and then furniture buying plans. It's better sometimes to not think about how busy we are and just like get through it. At the end of the day, we have a fridge stocked with beer and a bar stocked with wine. Cheers.

I could have lived without that storm...

2011-11-01T00:27:00.000-04:00

We were sushi this year for Halloween. I really loved this costume because it was comfortable, easy, and reusable. Halloween in general this year was sort of... a challenge. The weather dumped 6+ inches of snow on us and then our power went out when we had company. This normally wouldn't be a huge deal except for the fact that we now live pretty far from most people and it was freezing outside. It got pretty cold inside fast as well and even with a fire lit in the fireplace, it was way less than desirable. Two of our friends got stuck here - literally stuck, they couldn't get out of the driveway. Another two of our friends took 1.5 hours to get home during a normally 35 minute commute so yeah, it was one of those moments when we were like, "why didn't we just cancel this stupid party!"

The following day, still without power, we had to go over to my parents house for a family party. We showered there and then got on with the party. Later when we got back to our still powerless home we packed our things and headed back over there... where they too were out of power but at least had a generator to power the kitchen, 1 bathroom, and the family room. Even though this was less than half the house, it was also Way more than we had in our house. I mean they had heat for 1! We stayed in my brother's old room and since it was super dark and there was Nothing else to do, we went to bed at 9:30pm. I can't even remember the last time I went to bed that early! I slept till close to 6am and actually did wake up feeling pretty refreshed.

My town is a complete disaster area. The snow wasn't the worst part of it. The trees were actually the worst part. I've never seen so many down trees before and so many power lines down. Just driving to work proved to be another challenge with detours everywhere. Luckily for us, our power came back on mid-day on Monday so I could come home after work and get things back in order. I didn't really do all that much but empty out the fridge, take out the trash and recycling and then deal with stupid stuff around the house that nobody even thinks of... like the alarm system. My God, that took forever and a day to work out. Also, the garage door took at least 10 tries to get back onto the track. These stupid little things that homeowners need to deal with are so headache inducing! Don't even get me started about all the trees in our yard. The only good part about that is that we're hopefully going to hire someone else to handle that. There's no way I'm getting out there with a hand saw or a chainsaw, there's just way too much out there. I'm also quite sure that our shed got another tree to fall on it. WHY did the previous owners put a shed right in the middle of a shit load of trees? Who does that?! Tip: don't put your shed under a plethora of trees where damage is imminent and moss is plentiful.

If this Halloween was any indication of the winter to come then sign me up for a fully operational generator!

Almost Halloween

2011-10-29T11:19:00.000-04:00

We spent a lot of time making our Halloween costumes this year... yeah, we like went out to the fabric store and bought all the supplies and for $52 we were able to make 2 costumes in 2 hours. Personally, I don't care if you make or buy your costume -- it just tends to come out way more hilarious if you make it. Life was really busy this week so come Friday night we were like, "Shit, we're having a party tomorrow night... here at this house!" So we had to finish everything up and then clean like mad people because by the end of the week this place is consistently and without fail A Total Dump. We had to buy food, liquor, beer, pumpkins and shovels. We've never owned shovels before and I don't think ignoring the snow will be an option anymore.

After hours of cleaning and organizing later, the weather report changed. Instead of a few inches of snow it's looking like 6-10 inches. WHY?! I don't care if it snows, but if it ruins all of our efforts it's really going to suck. I don't mind eating all the party foods myself and drinking all the beer, but I'm not exactly going to sit around in my costume by myself doing that. Ok, maybe I will... I'll have nothing better to do since my dog isn't around to tend to. I guess this will make clean-up a lot easier if nobody comes all the way out to our house, that's a major upside to the situation.

[This is not my Halloween costume, this is just a really horrific outfit]

Another major upside is that we finally hung stuff on our walls. It only took 2 months. I'm not even kidding you, it took us 2 months to put 1 freaking nail into the wall and now we have 7 items on display. I never thought I'd see the day. I'm really weird about a lot of things, but the permanence of wall decoration is definitely one of them. I'm all for complete and total commitment except with decorating. -- I just ordered Dwell Magazine yesterday to try and inspire me / make me feel poor and unhip. A magazine is a lot cheaper than an interior decorator though, so hey that's something.

This week not much got done around the house. We relocated Mia's crate to the office from the family room, and hung 7 pictures... that's it. Today the boys are going to repair our shed (hopefully) that was damaged a while ago and I had planned on fertilizing the lawn but I am pretty sure we missed that boat. We decided to hold off until December to buy our second car for like a bunch of reasons but mainly because in December we can afford to buy something that we actually want vs. something that we feel cornered into based on price. This is a major relief and now we can focus on laying hardwood flooring and doing the crown moulding in the dining room in the next 2 weeks without me freaking out about the cost. -- I freak out a lot these days.

Something a crazy person would mention right now:
Pottery Barn is offering free shipping and free embroidery and discount prices on their Christmas items right now - stockings, tree skirts, etc. I bought 3 of course for a mere $48 which are going to be a lot nicer than our craptastic Target stockings. Christmas is my favorite holiday so I figure that if I start now buying a few things here and there when I see something nice on sale, then by December 1 we might actually have a decent amount of decoration that isn't cheap and tacky. I am really sick of having horrendous holiday decorations, I'm too old for that shit.

Back to Halloween. Hopefully, I'll be able to show photos of our super cute costumes tomorrow and hopefully I won't attempt to drink all the beer myself.

Laziness is King

2011-10-24T20:32:00.000-04:00

Well I haven't gotten around to decorating my coffee table yet... but I really do appreciate the ideas that people had and I'm heavily considering a nice combination of them. My reality is that I haven't had a moment to go out to like Home Goods or Pottery Barn and look at anything in person yet. It's just been really busy and like... yeah my house still looks unlived in and uninviting - Oh Well.

My little pumpkin is gone for 3 weeks at Boot Camp, and in the meantime we have to do like a billion things. The first item on our list is to buy a second car. We're really really specific with what we are looking for in this car - dirt cheap, 30something miles to the gallon, used with 30-40K miles on it, and did I say Dirt Cheap? We started this adventure a few weeks ago and hopefully by the end of this week we can finally close this project out. Also, we're throwing a Halloween party on Saturday and the only thing we have is beer and tortilla chips... no costumes, no decorations, no jello shots, we've got nothing. I just realized why we don't usually like to throw parties - the effort is just too much work for us. Laziness often pays off, I'm telling you, not having to prep or clean up or any of that is a massive reward for non-party throwers. We've been debating a costume for a few weeks now and the closest we got to locking in an idea was a horse - as in I'm the head and Abe's the butt and together we're a horse but apart we aren't really anything at all. Turns out those are Really expensive costumes, like $1,600!! So back to square one.

Other things on our massive To-Do list, and most of which hasn't even begun yet:

Crown moulding in the dining room
Hardwood flooring in the dining room
Repair the roof of the shed
Clear out the garden for the winter
Clean the gutters
Fertilize the entire lawn ourselves for the winter
Finish picking up all the stray twigs everywhere
Call the plow guy to put us on his schedule for the winter
Paint all the baseboards on the first floor
Paint the bathroom on the first floor
Order our dining room set
Maybe hang some stuff on the walls
Curtains for our bedroom
Move some furniture around
Get a second mattress for our second guest room
Replace some shelving in the laundry room
Chandelier in the dining room
Area rugs for the family room

Obviously all of this shit isn't going to get done in 3 weeks especially since most of it can't be done during the week days, but it's better to make a long list and hope to get through half of it than to make a short list and not do any of it -- this happens way more than I'd like to admit.

For example in this photo there is a white carton of like window blinds in the background with a pink sticky note on it. This was left in that same exact spot by the sellers of this house. That thing has sat there untouched for over 1 month. I just moved the stupid thing yesterday so I could put a plant there, but man, if my plant didn't need a new spot to sit then that thing would Still be sitting there. Also, I'm pretty sure that we're making the same face...

Decorating

2011-10-17T20:34:00.000-04:00

I have a couple problems that I could use a little help with.

1. I would like to "dress" my coffee table, but I really don't know how. I'm a minimalist decorator... aka, I don't like a lot of crap sitting around. Too many "things" feel like clutter to me. So anyways, I could really use some advice on how to "dress" this piece (seen below). I do plan on getting more exciting throw pillows and a more exciting area rug but both of those are also challenging for me.

Suggestions are welcome. I hear this thing called Pinterest is supposed to help me with this, but I can't really figure out how to use it... nor can I even see anything on the site. Not sure why.

2. We need Halloween costumes. I sort of wanted to be those dancing hamsters from the Kia commercials but it turns out that's actually two costumes. 1. a hamster, and 2. a hip hop outfit on top of that, so way too much work for these two lazy people. Any good ideas?

The Bar Method

2011-10-15T07:36:00.000-04:00

The Bar Method has come to Boston. You can read all about it Here but reading about it is a lot different than experiencing it. The studio is in Back Bay on Clarendon and it's brand new and gorgeous.

I assumed this would be a lot like my current Physique57 dvd workouts and I was right, they are right on the same track. All movements are small, purposeful, and you do a million reps of teeny tiny painful movements that crush your soul. Your muscles shake from minute 5 through the very end at 1 hour. It's embarrassing until your realize that 95% of the class is in the same boat of uncontrollable muscle spasms.

The studio requires that you wear pants/long shorts and socks for sure. You do the workout on carpeting so that you don't slide around. It starts out with a warm up of basic marching leg lifts, goes into arms with very light weights (2-4 lbs) in which you instantly start sweating, and then continues on to the bar with uncomfortable stretches and more tiny leg lifts and tiny squats. Do you know how much a tiny squat hurts? A shit load more than a big squat. Eventually you sit on the floor with your back against the wall and lift your leg straight up to the wall (back and up) and like a hundred reps later, you might be done. I can't even straighten my leg straight up at that flexible angle, which is a problem... it was like a major effing handicap in this case and mother of God, it just was the hardest section for me. Next up was the abs and that was not half as bad, you laid on the floor on a little pad and did mini crunches, like so small you were really only moving like inches, and then lifted your pelvis just inches, and sometimes you did them at the same time. It ended with a nice cool down with stretches.

After the class, my body felt exhausted and I just wanted to lay down for the longest nap of my life. As the day went on, my body felt a bit more pain. It seems a lot like I just paid $24 for 1 hour of a major pain session in which the instructor continuously corrected my form and talked to me through her microphone, which was nice of course but also another blow to my ego. The price is a bit steep, but it was something that I was really curious about so I took the plunge.

This class is tough but in a good way and I'll probably end up going back.

Update - the morning after, I am Really sore: thighs, butt, back of arms, and abs.

Bon Me Truck

2011-10-10T21:30:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend, I had the chance to go out for brunch with a couple girlfriends to Union in the South End which I totally recommend. In fact, I'd really love to go back like asap. The food is really good, the vibe is great, and it's nicely priced. The portions could be a little bigger, or I could be less of a fatty... but let's be serious here, the portions could be a little bigger. Right after we ate, we headed over to the South End Open Market. It's a big favorite on the weekends and as it turns out - the food trucks are like all over this. Every food truck that I'd ever heard of in the Boston area shows up for this. I was so mad at myself for not having enough room in my stomach for like every truck's food there. I decided that I Had to try Bon Me. First of all, bon me's are all similar - Vietnamese sandwiches with some pork, some veggies, and some nice spicy sauce. This Bon Me was Huge. It was the size of a Subway Footlong, but of course much much better. I had a few bites and then saved the rest for Abe to eat later. It was well worth the $6 they sell it for, I felt like I stole it from them or something. That could easily sell for $10. The longest line by far was Roxy's Grilled Cheese, but I wasn't about to wait forever for a freaking grilled cheese... maybe next time.

The open market continues for the rest of the month - it's dog friendly, and you don't actually have to buy or eat anything at all. It's just sort of a really good time and there's lots of meter parking, which is cool too. I totally recommend bringing your appetite and some cash, your stomach will thank you!

Partying in The 'Burbs

2011-10-08T14:56:00.000-04:00

Friday night.
Plans: go out to dinner with another couple for a friend's birthday.
Traffic: horrendous, so dinner was a little later than intended.
Location: Deep in the burbs, real deep.

We arrived at this little Mexican restaurant located in a strip mall and thought to ourselves, "this seems like a really strange place for a restaurant..." We entered and I ordered myself a $3.99 sangria (which was pretty amazing) and we sat down with our friends. First of all, we had to cross a dance floor to get to our table. There was a DJ there for some reason, though nobody was dancing as it was 9pm. That would eventually change, but for the time being we had dance music going and drinks a flowing. The food was really good, like... pretty authentic Mexican for a place that looked to be more Tex-Mex than anything else. We were having a really great time: drinking, joking, eating lots of food and then suddenly it's like we entered a whole new world.

Scene:

Everyone is dancing around us - 20somethings, 30somethings, 40somethings, 50somethings, maybe even people who are friends with my parents.
Music - the best music you may hear at your local wedding venue
Dudes are showing up and sort of circling the dance floor looking at the fresh meat, a la high school dance style or your local Boston bar
Girls are wearing their best "going out" outfits. One girl looks like a hooker, and strangely another girl looks like The Hamburglar... ok, not really, but she was wearing a 1 piece suit that was purple or something.
Realization: we are the only people drinking, all the rest of these turkeys are Dead Sober, like this is what they like to do without having to be insanely drunk...

I believe that people can do anything they want to do in order to have a good time. If you want to go do a keg stand without wearing pants, so be it. If you want to stay home and watch a movie while wearing sweat pants, so be it. If you want to dance around on a Friday night at your local Chili's equivalent while wearing a hooker outfit, knock yourself out. It was like the most entertaining shit I've seen in a really long time. Unfortunately, it also meant we had to witness middle aged making out, but it happens! I'm not sure that we really fit in, but the food was good enough for us to go back for sure. Next time we'll know what to expect instead of feeling so blind sided by the sudden urgency to let loose on the weekend by the locals.

Vet on Speed Dial

2011-10-04T14:59:00.000-04:00

Last night after work, we made excellent time through the commute and then I ran into the vet office to pick up a couple things for Mia before coming home. When we got back to the house, we fed her, and then took a good look at our little one. On Sunday, I had cleaned off her eye a few times but figured that there were just a lot of sleepies in there. By Monday night, her eye was really red and all signs pointed towards conjunctivitis so we had to take her to the vet at 7:45pm.

The good news: It's only conjunctivitis and with an eye ointment applied 3x a day, it will go away.

The bad news: I have to insert this eye ointment by myself for the first couple of days because Abe will be traveling. Also, I had to stay home with her today because she couldn't attend daycare like this... although it's likely to happen again and again with her being in close quarters jumping all over other dogs at daycare so frequently. The fee for this visit was higher than the usual vet fee since we didn't have an appointment scheduled but they really wanted us to come right away to make sure there wasn't any actual eye damage so it was sort of like after hours "urgent care" type of a visit, so we had to pay $92 vs. the $65 for a regular visit. Dogs cost a million dollars to own, nobody tells you that, but I will tell you! Not that we would take her back or anything, but man they're way more expensive than anyone lets on.

You may also notice in this photo that Mia is wearing a harness now. At first, I thought it was a bad idea. My dog growing up had one, and it just wasn't anything special. This one, on the other hand is like magic. It stops her from pulling while walking somehow, and she actually likes wearing it. If you have a dog who is a terrible walker, then this may be the answer for you. It gives you more control, takes pressure off her neck, and somehow it really does stop the dog from trying to pull you across the country to chase that squirrel. We take it off when she goes to sleep and when she's at daycare, but she looks really cute with it. The only downside is that she gets stuck under the bed if she's wearing it since she barely fits under there as it is, so then I have to help her out. Oh well! Purple is her color.

I Just Needed to Vent

2011-10-01T19:58:00.000-04:00

We spend a lot of time commuting. I usually tell people it takes around an hour, but that's a bold face lie. Really we leave the house at 6:45am to drop Mia off at daycare and then we need to circle all the way back to get on the road to work where we sit in traffic till around 8:15-8:20 when we arrive at Abe's office and then I get on the subway and get to my work at 8:30-8:45. I am in commuting mode for 2 hours. Before we got Mia in daycare it was of course a much shorter commute, maybe even 25 minutes less time on the road but she needs it. On the days that I sometimes take the commuter rail, I still need to drive 10 minutes to the train, then sit on the train for 1 hour, then get on the subway for 5-10 minutes, so that is still a process.

During all this time spent in the car there's a lot of time for thinking and for self reflection. I think a lot about work and ongoing projects. I think a lot about home improvements and steps we need to take to get all of our wish-list type stuff done. These days I find myself mostly thinking about my relationships and about my dog's manners. Those are two totally different things but those are on my brain a lot. While we've been at the new house for about a month now I've realized a couple things:

1. Doing anything after work in town during the week is close to impossible with only 1 car and Mia needing to be picked up at daycare / let out to pee.
2. Not doing anything after work means that friendships become much more difficult to maintain because on weekends we have a million house projects to work on.
3. I don't really care all that much.

Life has gotten much more complicated these days and yet people still ask me about babies all the time. We've having a super hard time dealing with our new house, commute, and dog... a baby is the absolute last thing that we need right now. Each night we go to bed in a kind of exhaustion that we didn't know existed. Each day we look at our checking account with a kind of horror that I haven't known since I was in college. I can't even lie and say that money isn't really tight right now and that it's not crushing our souls and dreams of ever going on a vacation again, or that the adjustment to the suburbs isn't hard at all. It's tough, all of it and there's really nothing that we could have done to prepare ourselves better for all of this. There's no in between with this shit, it's all or nothing but that's how we tend to live our lives.

Once we solve a few of our problems, I think that things will go more smoothly - Mia will get the training that she desperately needs, we'll finish a few key rooms in the house, a second car will be added to alleviate some of the scheduling conflicts, and bonus season will pad our checking account again. Sometimes it just feels really good to vent because as exciting as this is, it's still all very overwhelming on a daily basis and because of that we tend to drink a lot more than we used to. There are worse things in the world... like making out with a Kong and being caught on camera.

Me vs. The Scale

2011-09-29T21:43:00.001-04:00

Reality has set in.

Our scale broke during our move into this house a little over a month ago and it was glorious. It was a nice long stretch of not knowing how things were really going in the pounds department. We ate and ate and drank and drank more in total denial. I exercised a few times but nothing even close to how I used to work out in prior years due to the puppy and the home improvements.

Today a new scale arrived.

After work before dinner (we usually weigh in during the morning) we both took our turns and we've both lost weight but it was muscle and not fat. I lost 4 pounds on muscle in one month's time and probably more, I'm sure it's more like 5+ solid pounds if I would have weighed myself this morning. What does this mean? It means that all my clothing is fitting nicely, but there's not an inch of muscle definition on this marshmallow-looking body. I've become one of those fat-skinny people. So of course it's not like I want to gain weight back, but I totally need to tone this shit up. This weekend I'm going to make some time for some weights and maybe some hill running even if it's not very far. I can just go up and down my 1/2 mile street like 4 times right? Nobody around here will think I'm like totally the weirdest neighbor on the block right?... right.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where your scale goes missing - celebrate the time, because it always ends up finding a way back home to judge you and your weaknesses. Not that you need to own a scale. I actually didn't even own one until a couple of years ago but it's one of those things that sort of haunts you once you get attached to it. Sort of like an alarm clock or something, it just gets into your routine and you really wish it away as much as you can but it's always there.

In other fat person news - the season of pumpkin ice cream (one of my personal favorites) is here. Get your pumpkin lattes, ice cream, pie, soup, cake, muffins, oatmeal, whatever. You name it, you've got it. They will put pumpkin in just about anything, they'd probably put it in toothpaste if you asked them to. This weekend I'm going to do my best to eat something with pumpkin in it. I might even eat something with pumpkin and bacon. Take that flabby butt... take that.

Doggie Bootcamp and Commuter Cars

2011-09-27T21:36:00.000-04:00

This picture makes me laugh. She's So funny!

And this one too. Side by Side naps.

We're working on Mia's commands at home - sit, lay down, come, etc. It's going Ok. Most of the time she'll do what we ask, but the second she gets distracted by anything at all it's over and she's easily distracted. Some days it seems like she's improving and then other days she actually seems much worse. At this age, I'm not sure what exactly what we should be expecting from her but I've been reading that this age is basically doggie adolescence. It seems too soon for that! This is my little princess... Right now she is prime for training but she's not getting all that much because the two of us have no idea how to fix her anxiety issues. I'm also pretty sure that although she's making some friends at daycare that she's also probably the daycare bully playing too rough with the other puppies. If she plays with them the way that she sometimes plays with us, then I'm sure she's making some of them mad (she likes to nibble on ears). We are toying with the idea of doggie bootcamp where she trains away from us for 2 weeks or for 3 weeks and then comes back and the trainer then shows us how to keep the good behavior going. The only reason that I would ever consider doing this is because Abe actually knows someone who went through the process and she thinks it's the best thing that she could have done for herself and her dog. We are just going to go through the inquiry process to see if they can address the problems that Mia is having: eating stuff, chewing stuff, humping stuff, barking at people and dogs really loudly and scarily, jumping up on guests, barking at little kids, not being able to focus her attention, separation anxiety, crying for no reason, not walking well on a leash all the time, and last but not least... she would run away if she had the chance and we don't want that. So as you can see there is a laundry list of stuff that we need to work on and I'm just not sure that we have the means to help her just on our own. This type of service is obviously intensive and also pretty expensive, but we're willing to see what they have to say. I don't want her to come back a different dog, I'd just want her to come back a more relaxed dog that can be trusted. I'd just like to know that we can leave her unattended for two seconds without disaster ensuing.

Other than our dog taking up all of our time, we were able to spend some time this week car shopping. We need to get a second commuter type car (good gas mileage and cheap). Right now we have a Jeep, which we are both super enthusiastic about but it is really meant to be our car around town and our winter car. It costs us $75 per week to drive this thing to Boston for work every week so it's not the most efficient vehicle, and that's fine, it was never meant to be the commuter car. Hopefully we can find something in our price range in the next couple of weeks! It will be so nice to have two cars, for the past 5 years we've shared 1 car... can you even imagine that? Now that we're outside of the city it doesn't make sense to have only 1 (thank God). It's going to be so freeing to not have to do the car coordination juggle every time we find ourselves with plans on the same day. Hopefully Mia likes what we pick out since she'll be riding in the back seat!

The Niceness...

2011-09-25T11:07:00.000-04:00

Going to the grocery store in Cambridge was sort of like a rodeo. You had to get there and then be prepared to circle around for parking for at least 10 minutes in the ridiculously too small parking lot and then try and squeeze your car into a spot sized for a super thin vehicle. Once you got into the store it was like kill or be killed. You really sort of had to be extra rude in order to get in an out of there in under an hour and then be prepared to fight traffic and idiot pedestrians to get home.

Going to the grocery store here in my new way suburban town is... so different. It's generally pretty busy, but I can always find parking. People talk to you and it's sort of unsettling. Today I was picking through some miniature pumpkins to bring home and put on the kitchen table, and some really old grandma was all like, "ohhhh!! I wanted to get some of those too, they are just so cute aren't they?!" I was literally stunned into silence with a smile. Was she talking to me? I don't even know her! Of course every single thing in this store is on sale and I walked out of there with a ton of food for way less than what I was paying for groceries in Cambridge. I didn't even almost hit a pedestrian in the parking lot, it's sort of become such a non-event. It used to take so much energy to do this chore that it just drove me crazy but it's so much better now! I just need to tell myself to be nice to people because they're my new neighbors and people are Nice outside of the city.

I called a pharmacy to transfer a prescription to the area, and the pharmacist was way too nice about it. I've never heard somebody be so cheerful about prescriptions before and like really wanting to help me get everything that I needed. Maybe he only gets like a few calls per day versus the hundreds of pharmacy calls that go into my old location. That place was a nut house 24 hours a day!

In other news, I'm going to start a separate blog about my dog once I think of a name for it. I have a feeling that people here may not want to read about her everyday and other crazy dog people and go there for an extra fixing of super cuteness.

We Survived!

2011-09-24T09:27:00.000-04:00

Mia survived being boarded overnight on Thursday at her doggie daycare. I'm not sure how she felt about it, but she was definitely acting a bit differently when she came home. At first it seemed like all the progress we had made over the last week went down the drain, but a couple hours later she seemed back to her normal self. One bad habit she seems to have picked up is that she's much more "mouthy" and it's pretty rude. One good habit is that she hasn't had 1 bathroom accident all week! Anyways, after that experience I'd rather not board her if we can help it. She's not behaved well enough for my parents to take her yet so we just need to keep working on her skills so that maybe someday they can without being overwhelmed by her. Maybe sometime next year...

While my in-laws were here, she of course barked at them and jumped up upon entry. My MIL did not appreciate the loud barking but she did eventually simmer down 5-10 minutes later and I think they actually liked her. My FIL enjoyed throwing the tennis ball for her, and they really liked watching her do her best "sit" and "laydown". This was a really good test to see where she is, and just two weeks ago it would take her a much longer time to settle down. The daycare is really helping her interact with new people! It's really too bad that the weather is going to be bad this weekend. We just had her washed and it's going to be sort of rainy and gloomy. Maybe next weekend we can find her a dog park so she can run around and burn off some of her energy that she has so much of.

Mia's eating hasn't been good. She tends to nibble at breakfast or ignore it completely, and I will pack it up in her daycare bag and they feed it to her later where they say she eats it.... but then at dinner she really just pokes at it again. This morning after she ignored her breakfast for an hour we took her Blue Buffalo puppy food and mixed in a half can of something and she gobbled it right up, so apparently she must hate her food. At least she finally ate something nutritious besides her treats. We don't ever feed her people food so it's not like she's really holding out for anything, she's just picky I guess or trying to watch her slim figure.

[photo: Mia's daycare breakfast, treat, and kong tote. The cutest is just overwhelming, I know!]

Right now she's standing at the door to the garage thinking that we're going to take her to daycare to play with her friends... too bad little girl, you're staying home today!

First night away...

2011-09-22T22:27:00.000-04:00

Well it's happened. Today was the first day that Mia went to daycare and didn't really feel like being there. Unfortunately for her it is also the first night that had to board her because my 70 year old mother and father in law are staying with us for a couple nights. She's coming home tomorrow, but it was so hard to leave her there when it was evident that she wanted to stay with us today for some reason. The sad look on her face was just too much. Maybe she could sense my reluctance to let go of her leash... who knows? I thought about my poor little princess every second of the day, and I know that I'm a crazy person. I'm also a crazy person that does Photobooth with my dog.

The only bright side about this is that they are going to groom her before she comes home. The smell of doggie daycare better not be on that fur or else... I'm not sure what else but Something will happen. Maybe.

Doggie Daycare

2011-09-20T21:38:00.000-04:00

This week Mia has been attending doggie daycare. We drop her off 10 minutes away before work and pick her up when we get home - there really are no time restrictions. I pack her leftover breakfast since she tends to not finish it and they give it to her again later in the morning. I also pack her treats and a peanut butter filled kong into a lunch tote. Mia jumps into the back of our Jeep with a little help and off we go and when we get there she runs right in there without even looking back at us. They are placed into play groups based on how they play - active vs. less crazy. Mia is in the active puppy group of course. Then they are rotated outside in big supervised play areas for an hour and then put back into their crate for an hour for "naptime" or quiet time, which is when Mia would get her kong full of deliciousness.

People have all sorts of opinions about doggie daycare, but all I know is that my dog LOVES it. In the past two days since she's been going there her behavior has improved, she hasn't peed or pooped in the house, she really enjoys car rides now because she knows she's going somewhere fun, she gets to have fun all day long instead of sitting in her crate at home, and she still loves us when she gets home at the end of the day. I don't think that doggie daycare is for everyone or every dog, but I think it's a really awesome solution for puppies who want to be around other dogs all the time. Eventually, once she gets out of puppy-hood she'll probably move on from this day activity but right now it's going so well for all of us. I mean sure, we may need to get second jobs but it's worth it. The one and only downside of this daycare is that it sort of really smells.... it's like a giant wet dog exploded in a warehouse. I'm sure it's difficult to keep a facility like that super fresh smelling with all those dogs running around constantly, but omg, she comes home and stinks - it's instant, like right on day 1 she stunk. I googled it and apparently this is a common problem for doggie daycares because they're all just jumping all over each other and playing and then laying in a crate. We tried some freshening wipes when she got home today but they didn't really do too much. You're not really supposed to wash your dog all the time or you'll dry out their skin, so I am not sure what else I can do - thoughts?

Perhaps, one of the best parts of doggie daycare is that we don't need to rush home so she can pee. Monday was a shit show for me at work and we weren't able to leave Boston until around 6:30 and we got to the daycare around 7:45 which isn't good for anyone but at least someone was watching her and she wasn't alone. The flexibility combined with our dog's happiness makes up for the strong doggy smell that now lingers on her fur.

Dinner Out!

2011-09-18T13:10:00.001-04:00

We went to this awesome restaurant yesterday Sam's at Louis on the fan pier of Boston for a friend's birthday. I thought this was going to be one of those really snobby places that is high fashion and stupid - since it's part of a retail store of all things, but it's not. The atmosphere is hip and fun and the crowd is mixed (young professional to old money). It's very small, but 2 of the walls are glass so you can look out to the water and so it feels a bit bigger than it really is. There are also really cute tables outside on a wrap around deck for the warmer months. Cocktails there are pretty amazing, one of them comes with a rock candy stick (I ate two of them, they were so good). The food is even better - all American food, nothing too fancy or crazy. I got the black peppercorn burger and it was one of the best burgers that I've ever had. The patties were so juicy, and the bun was so butter soaked - perfect combination of a heart attack ($16 heart attack). Abe got the grilled hangar steak ($26) and they were good, but my burger was better! I totally loved this restaurant and I can't wait to go back.

The fan pier is really the place to be these days, and I love it. Parking was free. Do you know what you have to do to get free parking in back bay? You could offer to dish out really obscene acts of loving and you still wouldn't get free parking unless you drove around for an hour trying to find a meter and fight with 100 other people for it. Tourists are another problem in most other parts of Boston. There's nothing wrong with everyone coming to visit, it's great for the economy, but you know I'd rather not see them on a Saturday night when I'm out to dinner. Tourists pretty much are nonexistent on the fan pier except during hours when the ICA is open.

I woke up with a slight hangover this morning and it's a day packed full of house stuff and an interview at doggie daycare (omg, I know).

Early Risers

2011-09-17T10:06:00.000-04:00

Oh did you get up at 5:45am this lovely Saturday morning too? I'm sure everyone loves to do that. Welcome to my new world of early mornings and bad puppy behavior. Mia insisted on getting up, we tried to ignore her cries and her barks but it seemed like it just wasn't going to stop so I just got up. She went to the bathroom outside (yay!), ate breakfast, played, tore one of my socks apart, and then took a dump in the family room just for fun all before 7:30am (boo!). Yesterday was an accident free day and she was So well behaved all night. Today is a new day it seems.

Abe is working, so I'm trying to make the most of my time here and do some cleaning and organizing and stupid stuff around the house. I tried to get a new duvet in a cover and throw it on the bed, but Mia attacked it. I don't know why I thought I'd be able to do that without her jumping all over it - but hey at least she didn't hump it. Somehow she figured out that there are dryer sheets in the laundry room and then stole one and ate it - and when I say she ate it, she literally consumed as I was screaming at her and running around the house. It didn't go so well, she won that battle, hopefully she remembered to chew.

The only way that I'm even able to write this post right now - because I have to keep a constant eye on her, is because it takes her 25 minutes to eat a kong stuffed with frozen peanut butter. I hear from other people that it takes their dogs upwards of an hour, but my dog has a gigantic tongue and this is no real challenge to her. I'll take whatever I can get!

Your Dog is Crazy

2011-09-15T21:24:00.000-04:00

This morning was horrible. We were up till 1 and then had to get up at 5:30 to walk her (we always walk her at 5:30am) so then when I was getting ready for work (my fault totally) she pooped and peed all over the office. I am sure she wasn't TRYING to be a jerk or to ruin my morning, but it totally was bad timing. After clean up, it was near impossible to get her into her crate so we could go to work. She didn't want her kong, she didn't want her bone, she just wanted us not to leave her and it was heart breaking. It gets better. My mom came over an hour later to be here for a furniture delivery and she thought it would be a great idea to let Mia out and take her for a walk around the yard. Disaster ensued. Mia pulled her so hard that the plastic bone attached to the leash full of poop bags flew off and broke, and my mom took like 10 minutes trying to get her back in her crate after. She described Mia as being crazy... This morning was sort of an eye opener for us... we're going to try doggie daycare next week instead of the dog walker. It's at this place that we were planning on signing up for obedience classes anyway so this is sort of a good way to get a feel for it. I think this will solve a lot of her behavioral issues. She needs more socialization and that should cure her reaction to seeing new people and dogs all the time, soon it will be like no big deal when she's seeing them everyday. She'll be able to play all day long with people and dogs and we can pick her up and drop her off with no real schedule, if we're running late it's Ok because she will be cared for and not holding her pee all afternoon being all lonely. And on very special days, she can get one on one obedience training! This is a win/win for everyone, and only slightly more money than our dog walker was. I mean, sure I still see a part time job in my future as your local Barista so I can afford all her Milk Bones but whatever!

Tonight we did our first run together on our regular walking route. She ran so well - she runs better than she walks actually! We ran together for 12 minutes and then I walked her a bit. I'm not really sure how long she could have gone, but I thought that was a good place for her to start. Running with her is good because she can't stop and smell every little thing on the side of the road. We were like, "wow tonight is awesome, she's being so well behaved because we super exercised the shit out of her..." and then she literally almost took a shit in the family room. OMG! I don't know why because I had JUST taken her outside and she peed 5 minutes earlier, like WHY DOG, WHY!? I stopped it before it happened by screaming at her and pulling her out the door but it was so close to disaster, and she pooped and peed this morning in the office so like.... that would have just been too much! I can only handle so much poop in one day.

Anyhow, our coffee table came today and she insists on laying under it. We are trying to teach her to lay on her dog bed, but she insists on eating it or humping it. She's a little retarded...

Puppy Attack

2011-09-14T23:33:00.000-04:00

We had two days in a row without any bathroom issues and then today was a pee explosion x 2. We had guests and it turns out 1. Mia loves to go to the bathroom inside when we have people over, and 2. she loves to bark at little girls. She probably went to the bathroom inside as like some kind of rebellion against the unfun night that we gave her. We had to keep her on a leash because the the little girl was obviously terrified of Mia, and and didn't help that she barked at her like she was some kind of intruder. Overall, it was a really bad first impression. This is not good, we are having 7 kids here for Christmas so we need to work out this little issue or she won't be able to be a part of the family holiday.

Later as I was trying to calm her down, she decided to attack me. I'm not sure if she was playing or serious but she jumped all over me, scratching me and her teeth were out and she was growling. It was probably a combination of play and anger, but it really pissed me off. I tried to hold her down on the ground to get her to cut the shit, but she wasn't having any of it. Abe got her to stop and now she's behaving, but I don't know what to do when it comes to stuff like this. This dog is a serious handful at times and at other times, she is just my little princess. I'm starting to wonder if obedience class is what we need here or if we need something more! I'm not sure they teach solutions to separation anxiety in class or how to be nice to visitors or how not to bark at other dogs and joggers. Why are all those other dogs that we know and in our neighborhood so well behaved? What is the secret??

My two legged dog

2011-09-12T21:38:00.000-04:00

We have had Mia for 1 full week now and we've now entered the stage where she's shedding that timidness and she's testing boundaries nonstop. She's been sort of like "mouthing" and like sort of nipping. It's more like she's taking your hand in her mouth and not really biting down or anything, but it's not a good habit. She used to sit so nicely next to us near the kitchen table when we ate dinner, and now she begs. We've never given her human food or anything, but she'll squeeze herself under the table and put her head on our lap or nudge us. It's sweet and rude at the same time, we are trying to get her to stop. On our morning walks, she does so well with me, but then at night she'll be way more aggressive with Abe and pull nonstop the whole way. I think it's sort of strange she doesn't pull me but she does pull him since he wrestled her to the ground recently to show her who's boss. I'm not sure she remembers that moment, I think he should remind her someday soon. Maybe she knows that I'm weak and doesn't want to hurt me, or maybe she likes my fast pace.

Today, Abe had to stay like 15 minutes late at work which meant that we were stuck in some traffic on the way home and our poor baby had to hold her pee for like 7 hours but she did it! I'm so proud. I didn't think she would go in her crate (which she doesn't mind being in typically) but accidents happen and she's still a puppy. OMG. Today might be her first accident free day!!! OMG! It's only 9:20pm so there is still time for something to go wrong, but so far she's done so good.

Besides my super cute dog, things have been busy all around. My in laws are coming next week for a day and night so I'm feeling the pressure to finish a lot of ongoing and annoying projects. For some reason choosing a comforter for the guest bedroom causes me great anxiety and it doesn't help that the room is super sky blue and there's no time to change it. I'll pick something soon! And you know what I truly hate? When people say: You HAVE to do this, or you HAVE to do that. Guess what? There is more than one way to skin a freaking cat, and guess what else? It's my house. Opinions are nice and advice is great but being bossy is reserved for jerks and nobody likes that. True story. So anyways, I have like a handful of house projects to get done this week and weekend before the in laws touch down. Also - they're like 70 so having a new dog is making me really anxious and I'm constantly watching her and wondering, "I wonder how mom will react to that?! Fuck." I just don't want her to jump all over them and scare them or something, and then what? They'll be scared and then she'll feel their anxiety, and then they'll hate us. Ok, no that's like a total over exaggeration, but you know, it's a real fear.

Play Date

2011-09-11T07:44:00.001-04:00

[yawn]

Mia had her second play date yesterday, this time it was with Bacon (French bulldog) and they didn't really play very nice. Bacon is pretty dominant for such a tiny dog and Mia is pretty dominant in her own house. Also, one thing that she really needs to work on is meeting new people / dogs. For the first 30 minutes she just goes batshit crazy and then suddenly she just mellows out into the calmest of calm dogs and just hangs out but getting to that point isn't very fun for the new people... so we need to figure this out. When the visitors left, she was suddenly all tuckered out and later that night when we went to bed she voluntarily went into her crate and laid down to go to sleep. It was amazing. Usually we have to trick her in there with some treats which really isn't that bad at all, and she doesn't really mind that much.

It's 7:43am on a Sunday morning and I've been up for an hour walking, feeding, and playing with my dog. Life will never be the same. We're going to Costco and Petco when they open...

A Long Day!

2011-09-09T22:27:00.001-04:00

Today was a very special "Mia and Mommy Day". OMG. It was a long day.
6am - morning walk and breakfast
7am - play time, and then she peed in the dining room
8am - second walk
9am - play time / work time
10am - third walk, it was a long one
11:30 - dog walker arrived unexpectedly, she walked again
12pm - play time
1pm - Mia wondering aimlessly around the house looking for Abe or trouble
2pm - Mia annoyed that I was sitting on Abe's couch
3pm - nap time
3:30 - woken up to Mia staring at me
4pm - short walk with some jogging
5pm - losing mind
6pm - dinner time
7pm - first ride in the back of the Jeep and first vet visit with multiple vaccinations, micro chipping, and a long talk with the vet about how to train her to have more refined manners, a nice fat bill at the end, and we left with some new toys.

Guys, it was a long fucking day. I'm exhausted from entertaining the equivalent of a 2year old child all day long, and let me tell you... I'm not all that great with kids. I'm pretty sure the poor thing just stared at me thinking, "god, I'm so bored, why won't she just tap dance for me?!" Well, I can only do so much. Tomorrow is a new day though, and she is going to meet our French bulldog friend Bacon. Hopefully they get along well enough. As long as she doesn't try to eat him things should be fine!

Elephant Bracelet

2011-09-09T11:10:00.001-04:00

How cute is this bracelet? It was a recent gift by Natasha on a day that seemed to get worse by the minute so it was very well timed. I love how much detail goes into the clean lines in the shape of the body. For something that's so small, I'm impressed at how much care was taken to give the elephant a soft and friendly shape. Also, this little guy arrived in some Vera Wang stationery - Natasha doesn't mess around. I should probably stop sending snail mail on post its...

Mental Note - Christmas list so far: custom stationery, Keurig coffee machine, backyard dog park, hardwood flooring. It's all so exciting...

I have a problem

2011-09-08T21:23:00.002-04:00

Yes, I am going to post a photo of my dog like every single day from now until forever because:

I've taken a break from running
I've taken a break from dieting
My whole life is the new house and the new dog and I'm Ok with that

I've officially dropped out of the Newport, RI half marathon in October. During our big move and while settling in, running was not a priority and now that we have Mia... I have way too many important things on my plate. Eventually, I'd like to make a running buddy out of Mia but that's not for a bit down the road - I think she's probably still a bit too young. She really needs that energy draining exercise though!

Mia gets bolder and bolder each day. I never thought she arrived shy, but she's really testing limits all the time now... she's getting real comfortable around here, She barks at stuff really loudly, like inanamate objects and skylights and anything that seems weird to her. When we're just hanging out and she hears something, she's quick to jump up and start barking at anything that she might scare away. This of course is both great and awful at the same time. Having a guard dog is something that I did want, but I also really don't want her barking all the time. She's still having a lot of accidents in the house unfortunately, and I'm not really sure what to do about it. We take her out constantly and she does go outside, but for some reason she still also goes inside. I'm pretty sure her favorite thing in the world is peeing on the carpet and the taste / smell of beer. She isn't really all that interested in human food, but she's always trying to drink our beers... which is charming. Mia really enjoys her walks. We walk her 2 x a day and a dog walker comes around noon and walks her as well, so girlfriend is getting lots of attention and loves every second of it. Our entire day revolves around her well being - after work we race home to let her out of her crate. We drive down the street yelling, "we have a dog, and she has to pee, get out of the way!!"

So yeah, we're totally obsessed with her and it doesn't hurt that she's so pretty to look at!

Potty Training Challenges

2011-09-06T22:52:00.000-04:00

Having a dog remains joyful, especially when she takes a dump in your house when your entire family is eating dinner and then you have to run around and clean it up and take her outside while apologizing 400 times. Or after she barks at your father for 10 minutes straight (who is the nicest man in the world), or after breaking the most God awful wind while everyone is eating dessert. Or even after I had to clean up pee 2 x Just Today Even after all that she still remains to be the cutest thing in the world to us.

Tomorrow we're going to have to leave her at home for the first time in her crate while we go to work. A nice person is going to come and give her a walk at lunchtime though, so she won't have to go too long without company or without a pee break. Hopefully this arrangement works out... or hopefully it doesn't because it costs an arm and a leg, but as long as she's happy then we're happy.

That tongue is For Real.

Mia!

2011-09-05T21:17:00.000-04:00

She's here!! Mia arrived from Mississippi a healthy and happy dog. When she first got here, she was really overwhelmed and hyper... and crazy. After about 6 hours of exploring the house and the yard (with many walks, and many house accidents) she finally calmed way down and seemed to be a totally different dog. She has so much potential to be trained and hilarious.

She has so much energy.... and the biggest tongue known to man.

Welcome to the family!

False Alarm

2011-09-03T22:00:00.001-04:00

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early at 7am with a list of chores a mile long to complete before picking up our new dog at 2:30pm: grocery store, picked up twigs all over the yard, mowed the lawn, swept the driveway, setup the dog crate, put all the new dog stuff away, laundry, dishes, cleaning, organizing, called in our first homeowners insurance claim (apparently a tree fell on our shed without us realizing it until now and caused damage), and then made the call to the driver of the pet transport company to get an update of the exact time. We were told only this: call the number 1 hour before your pickup time to make sure that it's not sooner or later. The message on the other side said that they were running at least 24 hours late... and it was really vague. Like what happened? I hemmed and hawed and called our rescue coordinator, who I'm sure was on a long weekend vacation or gone for the day. We obsessively tried to find other phone numbers to call, and then finally we just went to the pickup location and waited to see if they might magically show up. They didn't, so we proceded to Natasha's pig roast without our puppy. It was a big let down. We did get to hang out with this guy though:

During the pig roast we called the driver's number again and got a way more detailed update on the status. It turns out the big van / truck that takes all the placed dogs from down south to here up north had some sort of big issue and had to stop to be repaired along the way. During that time, the dogs were let out and cared for while they fixed it up and then they hit the road again. They expect to arrive at our location tomorrow at 10pm which is not at all ideal since we lose out on an entire day. Its very frustrating, but what can we really do? We'll just have to roll with it, I'm sure that guy didn't mean to have truck issues. Hopefully our doggie didn't mind the extra time on the road too much...

So tomorrow is the day, good thing we got 90% of our to-do list done today! I'm excited to meet her.

Cheers

2011-09-02T21:15:00.000-04:00

I'm on the hunt for the creation of the perfect vodka dirty martini. Last week's attempt was a disaster due to many wrong choices (bad olives, meh vodka, meh recipe). This week's attempt was Much improved. I picked up some martini olives at Williams Sonoma to ensure an excellent flavor (which it totally was). I switched from Gray Goose vodka to Kettle One, and I made it extra dirty (extra olive juice).

Attempt #2

1/2 cup of Kettle One vodka
Not sure how much olive juice... I think I ended up using 2.5 teaspoons
4 olives
a teeny tiny bit of good vermouth - we're talking like 1/2 of a 1/2 teaspoon

Due to my lack of cocktail shaker, I choose to load up a big glass full of ice with all the ingredients and then I stir for about a minute nonstop and pour into the martini glass when done making sure it's nice and chilled.

I'm sure this new obsession comes as a shock to anyone who knows me since I typically don't do well with hard alcohol. Here's the thing: 1 drink sits just fine especially after eating a big dinner and almost all my dinners are large and in charge. This household has been trying to bring back the whole "cocktail hour" or "post dinner night cap" idea. You'd think we have like a million more productive things to do in the evenings... and sure we do, but luckily we're not aiming to get hammered here. My goal is to mix a delicious drink and then appreciate it while I catch up on my Google Reader. Next week: vodka dirty martini with pickle juice - apparently that's like a thing, I totally didn't make it up!

It's Going

2011-08-31T19:50:00.000-04:00

I'm really bad at blogging right now - sorry. The new house continues to consume my life, but I love it here so it's worth it. We're settling into suburban life pretty well - we still don't have any local friends but it's cool. At this point we have:

Family room painted and set up
Master bedroom painted and set up
Washer and dryer hooked up
Light fixtures inside and outside replaced
Family room furniture purchased
Installed new refrigerator
Office set up
Guest room set up
Hurricane avoided
Bank account draining at the speed of light
No time to exercise besides doing manual labor

By Saturday we will also have:

The basement set up into another tv room
The garden tended to
All the twigs and shit picked up from the storm
And a new friend...

I know, there were basically a million reasons not to get a dog right now but there was also 1 really good reason to get her. The only reason we even bought this house was so that we could have a dog and then we found one we liked and felt compelled to bring her home. She arrives on Saturday from a foster family in Mississippi. If there is anything that I've learned in life, it's this: don't wait to be happy, make it happen. That might sound overly dramatic, but why sit around and just wait for things to happen for you? Figure out what you want, make a list if you must, and then take the steps you need to execute the items in a realistic fashion.

She doesn't have a name yet... suggestions are welcome!

1st Suburban Run...God It Sucked

2011-08-27T14:41:00.000-04:00

So I mapped out this 2 mile run on mapmyrun.com and I was like Ok this is going to be easy, I can just follow a route that is very simple... sigh. Nothing is simple. I quickly realized that the retarded route that I mapped out included a couple very main roads that were not ideal at all. Also I kind of forgot how hilly towns are vs. Boston area. My favorite treadmill setting is "rolling foothills" but this was so much harder and so much worse than my body has experienced in a long time. In fact, my street is entirely uphill at various degrees for the last 1/2 mile of my run and it was so challenging for me (being out of shape + not being accustomed to hills) that a middle aged man came up behind me and asked me if I was Ok before blowing right by me. I smiled and waved and that was that - it was just another mortifying moment in life.

This is probably the shortest run I've ever logged but hey, it's my first run in 9 days so I'm just happy that I got back out there before it was too late. It was like 80 degrees and humid and when I got home Abe looked at me like, "what is wrong with you?!" I was panting and sweating - and obviously this was not a good look for me. Hopefully I can get back into decent shape soon because that was bad. Real Bad.

We're In The House!

2011-08-23T20:43:00.006-04:00

We are out of the city and into the suburbs and it's not as scary as I thought it would be. I mean the scary thing is actually that everyone out here is so freaking nice. Someone left us a door mat on our doorstep at some point during our moving and unpacking and its a mystery as to who it was. I mean sure it's probably a nice neighbor that came over to say hello or something and like left us a gift? Who does that? If that was someone in the city, I'd be like: hey stranger, get the fuck off my door step you psychopath! ... but you know it's just not like that here.

On Wednesday, we signed a million pieces of paper - many of which were the same things over and over and over again. Our lawyer (if you'd like to call him that) did a great job at keeping things real and organized and moving faster than the speed of light. The best part was when he said, "My wife got you a gift basket from Costco... you know it's nothing special, just something from Costco." Dude, if you are going to cheap out on something, don't admit it in front of a room full of 9 people, we paid you too much money for that. Later, we saw him at 8pm on a Saturday roaming Home Depot and he was dressed super casual and wearing a blue tooth headset as if he were about to accept an important call at any moment while wearing Adidas sandals and pushing around a cart full of wood in sales tax free New Hampshire.

We've moved many times: Somerville, Cambridge, Arlington, and now our most recent purchase outside of the city. This time was the

Only time that our movers were a let down. Here's a lesson to anyone who speaks another language and thinks that Americans are too stupid to understand you: we can sometimes understand you an it's insulting. Also, facial expressions do not lie. Also, taking 500 breaks makes your tips smaller you sons of bitches. I'm glad that ordeal is over, and they didn't break anything so I guess we should just like be happy about that. It's not like we didn't do anything ourselves, we moved an entire Jeep full of shit from one location to the next x2. I've never sweat at much as I did from Wednesday through yesterday, which is 6 days of nonstop sweating and wanting to die. My complexion is obviously amazing at this point, and did I mention that we were in a wedding on Sunday? We were, and 35 people asked me when we were going to have kids. Come on.

This house was "move-in ready", which is what people like to call non "fixer-uppers". That doesn't mean there isn't anything to do upon arrival! We had a lot of stuff to do: changed locks, changed light fixtures, magic erasered all the walls, took down a glass door, disinfected everything, vacuumed (it still smells like other people in here), cut the grass, trimmed the hedges, measured for furniture, bought bedroom furniture and family room furniture, measured for a fridge, bought a fridge, called an electrician, called a painter, called a plumber, assembled the guest room, installed cable and Internet (and land line dudes!) and that was all in just a handful of days. I unpacked boxes like a total mad woman, I think there are only 3-5 left, just because I couldn't stand the sight of them anymore. My legs are killing me from running up and down the stairs for the past week nonstop. I might be the strongest woman that I know, but don't be jealous because I'm also hideously covered in mosquito bites.

Things are coming along. One thing that is not coming along very well is my running. I haven't been able to find the time to get in a run, especially since I don't know the area and there aren't many sidewalks so I'm a little nervous about where to go. There is a high school down the street but who knows if there is a morning practice going on there or whatever. I'm going to try and map out a run tonight so the next time I can get out of here I can try it out. Sure I'm sort of training for a half marathon, but at the end of the day running is my hobby and getting settled into a house is just more important right now. It will happen again soon, and oh this is great, we were gifted a super new elliptical by my old neighbors! I'm so excited by this, I don't even like the elliptical but when it's free... it's like the best thing ever especially since I don't have a gym here yet. I might not get fat this winter guys!

So yes, we're still settling in, but having a house so far has been amazing. I love it, even the commute to the city isn't as bad as thought (only 45 mins. this morning!) so I'm slowly getting back into my regular routine and back to blogging now that we have the Interwebs.

Last Night in The City

2011-08-17T18:58:00.000-04:00

What? Do you people use plates and silverware to eat your dinner? Well, all of ours are packed and we weren't about to create more trash than we have to. It's funny how packing seems to be going really well at first, and then that last 10% is So Mother Effing Hard!! It's sort of like losing weight - same concept. This last little bit of stuff is really a battle, we even had to go out and get more boxes.

This morning, we closed on our new house and it was totally scary and bizarre. Sitting across the table from the people who you bought property from is really strange... you're just like trying to figure each other out without saying a word. We rapidly signed papers - we talked to our lawyer, they talked to their lawyer, and then we said goodbye and we went to the house to measure stuff so we could toss around more money we don't have. It's funny how quickly you can spend a butt load of money on things like light fixtures, locks, assorted home improvement items, and appliances. We ate Wendy's for lunch in order to make up for the shopping spree, but really it's a shopping spree that has no near end in sight with all the things we'll need to get.

We have a lot more stuff to do tonight before the movers come tomorrow at the ass crack of dawn and after that - I don't know if I'll have Internet access (Verizon strike has ruined our dreams of Fios)... so in the meantime here are all the things I'm going to miss about living in and around the city:

Walking to nice restaurants, or just the ability to walk anywhere instead of driving
Access to good food and good bars and being able to take cabs home
Amazing running routes
Road races all the time, all year round
Awesome high-end gyms
Just being able to do whatever you want after work really easily
Specialty stores
Delicious ethnic takeout
The cool and busy city vibe

And what I'm not going to miss about the city:

The MBTA
The jerks on the MBTA
Everything from cotton balls to wine is more expensive
Rush hour traffic - going 5 miles can take 40 minutes
Always having neighbors above or below you
City drivers
Not being able to have a dog
Not having enough space for Anything
Not being able to paint walls
Shoveling sidewalks and driveways that I don't own in the winter
Not being able to have a treadmill for winter running
College kids are Everywhere
Jaywalkers
The inability to use our grill in the summer

As you can see, I'm just about ready to leave the city... it's just been my life for the past 10+ years so letting go is not as easy as one would think considering all the things that I'm done with. When it's time for a new phase of life, you just know and then you have to make it happen.

Last City Long Run ... tear

2011-08-14T09:32:00.000-04:00

What did I do this weekend, you ask? I should get a trophy for all the shit I did just on Saturday. If you aren't from MA, then you don't give two shits that it's Tax Free Weekend - woot! It just so happens to be perfect timing for our upcoming move. I ordered 3 pieces of furniture, and was told to wait by the phone to know if all was kosher on Sat AM. I waited. While I was waiting, I helped the boys load up 2 cars to drive out to a fun filled bachelor party of idiotness including 1 dead pig and tennis raquet bug zappers. I drove Abe out to the party, dropped and the pig off, and then dropped by Marshalls on my way home. I got a couple house things, and then ran into the bagel shop and proceeded to choose the most unhealthy bagel and cream cheese combination on the menu. I figured, hell why not? I shoved it in my face as I drove the rest of the way home since I had a long run planned and I was starving.

I was still waiting by the phone by the time I got home. Seriously, WTF. Finally, I was like - If I don't run now, then I'm never going to do this damn thing. Enter brilliant idea with a bad attitude:

Yeah, it's only 1/2 brilliant and I totally realize how pink I am right now. Sure it keeps my phone dry, but what it doesn't do is make it any lighter. My phone is really heavy and was sort of awkward to run with. The run itself was pretty much awful. For the first time in a long time I hit "the wall" and wanted to DIE. I hit the wall at mile 6 - as you can see below, and then somehow clawed my was through the rest of the run. My legs wouldn't cooperate, my arms wouldn't cooperate, it was all so painful, the lactic acid was taking over my body and I knew the only way to make it stop was to get home dammit. This was definitely one of those runs that made me think to myself, "WHY do you do this to yourself... you could be out at brunch you moron."

The splits are unimpressive. I really wanted to run by the Charles River for my last long run while living in the city, and instead of being able to enjoy it, I spent 90% of the time dreaming of how good water would taste.

This run worries me for a bunch of reasons, but thankfully my right ankle, right arch, or left hip did not bother me the entire time. I would like to thank excessive foam rolling for that relief.

After my ridiculously slow long run, I did Jillian Michaels 6 Week Till 6 Pack Abs because I was really going for total body pain. Then I stretched, foam rolled, and ate lunch. It was 4pm by this point. 4pm!! My entire day had gotten away from me so obviously to compensate for that I decided to do a million things all at once - packed 6 boxes, went to Home Goods and TJ Maxx, dropped off donation stuff to my parents house, ate dinner, went to Bed Bath and Beyond, packed 6 more boxes, tossed like a hundred high school pictures where I look fat, and enjoyed a cider. Sorry, no photo documentation of whirlwind day of being productive, because I was too busy running around like an insane person.

Hopefully, I'm less nuts today... but FYI moving in 4 days, and only 60% packed.

Physique 57: Arms & Abs

2011-08-12T07:30:00.000-04:00

Holy Eff, this was really hard and it was only the condensed version.

Length: 30 minutes

Equipment: 2 light weights, 2 heavy weights, and a little ball the size of a dodge ball

Difficulty: medium to super freaking hard

This is just one dvd out of a series of 3 Physique 57 dvds that I have, and it seems that it might be the easiest of the 3 due to it being only 30 minutes. I've done plenty of at home workout dvds before, from pilates to barre method to P90X, and honest to God - this is the most intense workout I've done so far. Like any other workout there is a woman to watch to do the beginner version of the moves and then there is someone else to watch to follow the advanced version of the moves. I stayed right in the middle of things and I even used only light weights the whole way through the arm section and it was pretty painful. These women do not take breaks! In P90X you're allowed multiple 30 second breaks to get water or like whatever, but not here, there's no rest for women who want to look good apparently. The instructor urges you to keep going and not to stop because we don't want "jiggly arms"... I like her, she makes me feel bad about myself and then somehow good about myself at the same time. The abs section was really good, there were a lot of moves that I've never seen before and that hurt in a new and very special way. You use the ball throughout this section and either squeeze it between your legs or put it under your lower back or hold it and swing it around.

This is most definitely a good workout and if you have any Kelly Ripa arm jealously, then maybe you should give this a try - she swears by Physique 57.

I'd say that this is a very good complement to my running, however, I can't imagine doing this 4 times a week. It was worth my time for sure, and if you're looking for a new exercise dvd then this is one of the best that I've seen so far!

My Butt Hurts

2011-08-10T21:24:00.000-04:00

[If this is your mother or your grand mother, I am sorry.]

This woman made me laugh. We were under a bus stop and just so her head wouldn't get one drop of water on her, she broke out a very special rain hat. My mother calls these "head condoms". Yes, My Mother. I emailed her this photo just for fun.

Today I woke up intensely sore from last night's mini series of weighted squats and side lunges.
3 x 15 reps of squats with a 10 lb. weight
3 x 12 reps of side lunges with 10 lb. weight
I swear to you, that's all it took to make me feel all kinds of ass soreness.

Walking is pretty painful but I figured that once I loosened up on the treadmill things would get better. Oh no, that's not what happened. Things never got better, and it was just too much. My legs wouldn't cooperate, I couldn't even get a full stride going. So like the winner I am, I gave up, walked for 6 minutes and got off the treadmill. Instead, I spent 15 minutes foam rolling my butt all while getting funny looks from other gym members. What? You're never over extended yourself with squats and lunges? Do I have really weak glutes? The answer to that question is Yes. The whole reason I get so many little injuries is due to the lack of all over strength in my body: arms, core, glutes, hamstrings, all the way down to my freaking toes. So it's only fitting that while trying to amend this issue, I would push myself a little too far. Anyways, as the day / night goes on, the more my butt seems to hurt. it's like the lowest part of my butt right where the thigh hits. Anyways, it totally sucks.

You know what else sucks? Packing. We've packed maybe 12 boxes and we have at least another 40 to go - damn all those wedding gifts! I am totally against e-readers because I love the feel of a book, I want my book to be paper, I want to run real pages, etc. Right about now I really just want to throw all my books into a pile and burn them. Ok, not really, they were all very good books - the bad ones will be donated. I'm so done with this yet I've only just begun. We have way too much stuff, I can't even handle it. We are moving in one week from tomorrow. One Week! We're so not ready.

Quick Post

2011-08-06T09:21:00.000-04:00

Quick morning post:

I'm going to the beach for the first time this summer... with wine in my cooler.
I love my new Mizunos - no insoles are needed, further review to come.
My apartment is a disaster. A cross between packing and a PT office. - sorry Abe.
All of my super tight muscles have finally relaxed.
Ankle pain gone for now - we'll see what happens after tomorrow's long run though.
I have to go to a dance club tonight - shoot me.
Abe was Not kidnapped in Columbia - woot woot!
Today will be my first time parallel parking our new SUV... watch out.

Have a nice Saturday!

The Importance of Strength and Flexibility

2011-08-03T20:51:00.000-04:00

I foam rolled and stretched last night for close to 45 minutes and today my body feels almost like new. Of course at the time it was super painful (how does this not leave bruises?), but it really was worth it! I was supposed to run this morning but I just couldn't get out of bed - which I know is a terrible excuse, but I had time to get in a short run after work so it was no big deal. In fact, I was feeling super motivated and thought today might be a good day to try out some mile repeats on the nearby track. My Garmin had other ideas though, it was basically out of battery so I sat around and charged it and waited and waited and then finally I was like: Eff it, if I wait any longer I'm staying on this stupid uncomfortable couch! So I strapped the watch on and I got out there and was surprised at how good I really felt.

Um, I have no idea where those splits came from - but I give all the credit to foam rolling and realizing that muscles just shouldn't be tight all the time. This was one of those rare runs where I actually felt energized and able to hold good form. I did feel a bit out of shape especially with my breathing, there were moments of struggle, but I got through it and then foam rolled and stretched like a mad woman. My foam roller is my new BFF.

This was a good one for me, and it really perked up my otherwise very bland day. Tomorrow morning, I'm going wedding dress shopping at 8am. Do you know anyone else who tries on wedding dresses Before work? Well my friend and coworker does apparently! I was like, "...what?...8am?................Ok I'll meet you there!" I really am happy to go with her to do this because I know how special it is to some people (not me) and she was the runner who gave me insanely great advice on my injuries, but the early hour is something that nightmares are made of. I'll have to consciously remember to smile and be encouraging and give good feedback as opposed to yawning, having a zombie expression, and not speaking before 9am.

Injuries and Solutions

2011-08-02T21:10:00.000-04:00

Pain.

Lately, I've been logging miles and logging my pain area and levels. I've had a nagging ankle issue since May which is nowhere close to getting better and now most recently I have a hip / IT Band (not really sure the exact location) issue starting 3 days ago.

I was talking to my friend at work who is a fantastic runner, and I was explaining my problems. She herself has a couple of weird injuries that she's battling through and for her, yoga has been the biggest help so far. Her opinion of my issues blew my mind:

1. I likely need new shoes.
2. I need to stretch for longer each day and integrate yoga
3. Lower body strength training 2-3 x per week doing Real exercises
4. Running logs to figure out when / why injuries start
5. Don't go to a PCP for a running injury
6. Foam roll my hip. Tight muscles = eventual injuries.

Note how simple all of her suggestions are, but how True they all are at the same time. It's funny how easily I can forget to do stuff - I was doing squats and lunges religiously for a few weeks about a month ago but then it just dropped off my schedule. I am still pretty good about doing extended stretching at night, but the foam roller was getting dusty until my hip. It seriously hurts so mother effing bad to foam roll a really tight spot, but then when you get up it's like magic how much better it feels. So it's like: pain + more pain = less pain. She also mentioned that sometimes an injury can present as one thing but really be something else, for example knee pain can often be from your shoes or from a tight IT band. Back pain can also appear but be because of tight quads. I want to hire her on as a consultant for my household of continuous aches and pains and maybe a running coach too - girlfriend goes under 19 minutes in her 5K, she amazes me. Anyways, so sometimes simple advice can be the difference between being healthy and being sidelined.

I just spent a half an hour watching various foam rolling exercises on youtube and then executing them. It was 30 minutes well spent! Also, I had no idea how tight I was until I did all that.

A Long Run with Some Ankle Annoyance

2011-07-31T18:46:00.000-04:00

I can't even be bothered to look at my half marathon training schedule right now. The thought of following structure right now just annoys me and I'd rather do my own thing, but obviously I need to make sure I do the important stuff on my way to Newport, RI. My loose interpretation of any sort of training schedule is to make sure I get in my weekend long run as the #1 priority.

Today's long run was not very fun...

1.7 miles to the gym
4 miles of "rolling foothills" on the treadmill, level 4
1 mile of 1.0% incline on the treadmill
1.7 miles home
Total 8.5 miles of pain and there was some walking in there

I felt really out of shape and like my endurance just didn't show up for the party. I've been thinking a lot about heart rate lately and I don't really understand all these online heart rate calculators where you only enter your age. That's it? It takes nothing else into consideration? If that is the case, my target heart rate is 134 - 162. My average heart rate on the treadmill today was 170 - 172. This is not good. I'm working really hard to do something (with less oxygen, therefore less efficiently) that should be not that hard for me, aka I'm not really in great shape right now. I didn't need my heart rate to tell me that one though, that run was hard and now 6 hours later my ankle is killing me. During the run it was just barely noticeable, but now it's really just screaming. Good thing I picked up an ankle-specific ice wrap...

I'm still pretty sure this is still just a tendinitis issue, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with. The only real solution is to stop running for like 5 weeks and... well I just can't do that right now. So my second best solution is to be good about icing it and stretching and wearing compression socks post long-run. When I'm at work, I elevate it if it's bothering me by turning over my recycling bin (genius I know) but elevating only does so much. I don't understand how I keep getting injuries from running when I'm not really running all that much or that often, it's just non-stop and annoying! I think I will finally call a doctor this week, if only to just confirm my problem before not listening to the recommended prescription of rest. After Newport, I'll plan on taking a good few weeks off if this is still an issue.

Quickly - Go See Chihuly!

2011-07-31T10:43:00.000-04:00

The Chihuly exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is only here until August 8th. We got up early and made sure we got to the museum when it opened on Saturday, but it was still a freaking mad house. There were no less than a few hundred people in line for the exhibit and once we got inside there were massive crowds of people. Here's a tip - buy your ticket online and you don't need to wait in line to get inside.

The exhibit is blown glass from small scale to massive scale. I was amazed at how much was here, it felt like it kept going and going and it was all truly exceptionally impressive and beautiful. Below are a few photos taken at the exhibit (cameras are allowed) but honestly you need to see this in person. The photos do not do it justice! I even saw some idiots touching the art - I would not recommend this, but every person there loved the entire display. I've seen a lot of exhibits come through the MFA but this is by far and away my favorite one, so go see it before it's gone!

2 Dinners and 1 Dessert

2011-07-27T21:41:00.000-04:00

Rainbow sherbert on Castle Island in Southie after dinner out with girlfriends. The people watching at this place is like A-mazing. People are doing the weirdest shit, and it's very hard to figure out any one's story. Apparently ice cream and fried foods bring the masses together.

I'm sure that people were looking at us being like, "what the heck is with those girls?" Whatever. I love dessert.

Shamelessly, I went home and ate half of abe's leftover takeout for my second dinner. My first dinner was not that great... we went to Local 149. We started with fried pickles and other pickled things, and some fried cheese. They were interesting starters, not your typical fried pickles or your typical fried cheese. My entree was the braised brisket grilled cheese and a peach sangria. The sandwich was just Ok, it was really greasy and small and not that special... and this is something that people Rave about. Well, I love food and this was not one of my top sandwiches ever, it was sort of disappointing. Even the onion rings were disappointing, they were pretty bland. My meal was a solid C, but my sangria was a solid A! I would give this place another shot, but it's not on my list of favorites.

Run Saved By The AC

2011-07-24T21:10:00.000-04:00

This was my Saturday night, which was a lot of fun. We had to take a picture at this bar because we're Never Ever setting foot in there again. It's one of those places that we always try to like but in the end we just hate it and it's in like... a college area full of really weird college people. I got to bed at 1am after various drinks - my personal favorite being the vodka and ginger ale spritzer thingy from our bar mixed by your's truly. I love having a bar on-site, not that I drink a lot, but when I do it's so convenient.

This morning I woke up with No Desire to run at all. My arms are aching from yesterday's Xtend DVD, my ass is mother effing sore from the Barre crap, and all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and read a book (I know how lame that sounds but I love that activity). So I made a compromise with myself. I could do a little running indoors to avoid the oppressive morning humidity as long as I did hill work on the treadmill. Deal.

1.7 miles to my gym at a moderate pace
3 miles of the Rolling Foothills on level 5 on the treadmill
1.7 miles home in a relatively easy pace
6.4 Total - my longest run in ages and all without my Garmin

This run wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be, running in the air conditioning - while boring at times, was so much better than running in the dreaded heat. For the first time in a couple weeks, I didn't want to kill myself half way through my run which is a major success in my book! Hopefully, I can keep this bargaining going with myself.

Xtend Barre: Lean & Chiseled

2011-07-23T12:52:00.000-04:00

I have a handful of workout DVDs from Jillian Michaels, yoga, pilates, P90X, and now Xtend Barre: Lean & Chiseled. I'm not sure what spawned this brilliant idea that the new barre method workout was a good idea for me but I do love ballet and the long lean muscles that it brings. This is an hour workout if you do the entire thing, but it's broken up into sections:
Warm Up 6 minutes
Upper Body 11 minutes (need 3 lb. weights)
Barre 23 minutes (need a chair)
Core 10 minutes
Cool Down 5 minutes

I am feeling rather weak and out of shape lately - the idea of going to the gym and taking a strength class sounds too overwhelming because I'm really That weak right now and because of that my motivation is really lacking. I bought this DVD about 2 months ago, but never got around to trying it out. Today I did the Barre, Upper Body, and Core sections for a total of 44 minutes of ULTIMATE PAIN.

The woman on the video kept saying things like, "small movements, small motions...etc... lots of small things" and it turns out the small movements are the ones that burn the most.

The Barre section is entirely legs and butt and was easily the best part. I loved this section, it is challenging yet the movements are very simple. By the end of it my legs were shaking, and at that moment I knew that doing this kind of workout at home was much better than subjecting myself to a full 1.5 hours of hot yoga where I wouldn't be able to correctly do even half of the movements. In the first 3 minutes my legs were burning, so after 23 minutes I kind of wanted to die.

The Arms section was surprising. You only need 1 - 3 pound weights, which is way less than I usually use. I didn't even know that I had 3lb. weights in my closet, but luckily I did. The movements here were also very small and simple, but it was really hard even with such wimpy weights. This section could have been a little longer, by the end I was hurting but I was hoping for a little more even though by now I was covered in sweat.

The Core section was really good - a combination of pilates movements that brought the good burn. I'm trying to weigh on which is harder - the Jillian Michaels 6 Week Six Pack DVD or this one. They are very different, and I think I can't really compare due to the style differences but they're both very good. I liked that this one was only 10 minutes so I can always fit it in, but at the same time is 10 minutes enough? Sometimes it's not all or nothing, sometimes you just need to fit in a quick and effective workout - it doesn't need to take over your entire day.

I'm going to be sore tomorrow!

Hot Summer

2011-07-21T22:14:00.000-04:00

I got a haircut. It's strikingly similar to the haircut I had before. Imagine that my living room is 90 degrees right now and it's 7:30am - it looks even better now right?

This heat around here will not quit! It makes looking nice really hard, and looking halfway decent is a really good day. Makeup melts off, hair goes flat, clothes stick to body (The AC is never on in the stupid train). Never fear, we have 3 AC units running in our apartment with 1 fan (it's still 84 in here right now) - conserving energy is not really our thing, we're much better at conserving our moods and spirits. If we lost power right now, we'd high tail it right out of here to the first hotel even at Boston prices to stay cool. We aren't good with the heat or the cold, we're very high maintenance when it comes to temperature and I'm Ok with admitting that. My dream is to walk around with one of those little fans with a squirty thing to mist oneself with - all day long. This dream just emerged today, but I think it's an achievable one.

Two more days of this heat wave. Two more days of people losing their shit over the hot weather.

My hot weather tips: run early - like before the sun even rises, hydrate all day long even if you aren't going to be outside, wear loose clothing, reward yourself with an ice cream if you can find a place without a crazy line, do not swim in a public pool unless you want to swim with a dead body, kiddie pools work better, wear deodorant people, and don't waste your time with makeup...

Perverts Are Not Welcome Here

2011-07-18T20:26:00.001-04:00

Having a public blog, I understand that everything I put out here really is just sitting here for anyone and everyone to view at their leisure. I really don't have anything to hide: I'm not a criminal, I'm a good upstanding citizen with not even a speeding ticket in the past 10 years, I don't litter, I always recycle, I say Thank You to the bus driver.

What I really don't appreciate is people who have fetish fantasies who pray on innocent bystanders thousands of miles away. The thing is that there are so many fetishes and obsessions out there that you can't possibly predict what is going to turn that jackass on the other side of the country on. For example, things that definitely don't turn me on: girls who sweat. Things that definitely turn someone else on in a forum with photos of sweaty girls (most of whom are just runners like me, nothing sexual about running while fully clothed). So you see, sometimes there's nothing you can really do. My advice is to just check your blog traffic if you have a blog, or just make sure all the public photos you have of yourself are sort of locked down or in a place you consider to be more private than not. I was pretty horrified when I saw that 149 people had come to my blog in one day through a linked photo on a really inappropriate forum that I posted here last year during marathon training that 99.9% of the population would not find interesting at all. I mean, there was nothing nice about this picture at all.

This is something that people probably deal with all the time, people much more amazing looking and talented than me. I took down that photo, and the traffic from that site stopped. I reported that website to Flickr, although I doubt they will do anything about it since there were at least a dozen similar forums going on with similarly disgusting people posting images and links to totally unknowing women. I want my blog to be public because if i wasn't then I wouldn't have an audience, how does one keep the perverts away? I mean, I could limit my photos but I really don't post all that many as it is. Advice here is welcome. Perverts are not welcome.

Hat Review

2011-07-17T11:57:00.000-04:00

I'm not at hat person at all, they're something I never even owned until recently. I don't look good in hats, but I've found that during my morning runs nothing is more useful. They keep my hair back and out of my face, and I don't even have to brush it to get it all back and up there. This particular one is marketed as a women's fit running hat that is ultra light with sweat wicking and breathability. I think that it lives up to all those claims. It was around $20 - $25 and although it wasn't free like my previous black Chicago Marathon baseball style hat from a Bank of America expo booth, it's a much better choice for sweating my ass off in the summer - obviously it's highly visible as well, and it comes in at least 3 other colors. I got mine at City Sports (and I used City Sports Bucks!), but I'm sure you can find them at most running stores. I'm in love. (Note: this image was majorly re-touched because nobody wants to see my skin when it's This broken out combined with no makeup and unwashed and being like 9am - it was scary)

And this is my other hat:

It may or may not be a shark.

The Time I Almost Died

2011-07-16T22:15:00.000-04:00

Today was a rough day for me. I got a horrible night's sleep and then set out on a "long run", but really that meant that I was hoping to hit 5+ miles. I should have left earlier because it was just too hot out there for me by 10am (I'm loving my new running hat by the way, it's not as warm as my regular old hat). I started on a bike path for the shade, and then decided to run down a main road to get to the river. There was a crosswalk, and there were no cars coming on the double lane near side so I crossed to the median and waited for the cars in the next two lanes to stop for me to continue. A car stopped for me and I waved and walked a bit and then I was half way across the crosswalk when all of a sudden a car came barreling down the road at 50mph right for me (speed limit is probably around 30). He didn't slow down, didn't even try to avoid me in any way. I quickly took one step back to get out of his way because at that speed it was either move or die. I would have been dead if he hit me, and I felt the wind whoosh right by me. This wasn't like all the other times that people almost tapped me going very slowly, this was really traumatizing for me. I was practically in tears and decided to just deviate from my plan and run home. On the way there, I passed that same douchebag gray convertible that almost killed me. If I had my phone I could have walked right up and taken their picture before yelling at them. At the time, I quickly memorized the license plate but forgot it by the time I got home of course. It was the scariest 3 or 4 seconds of my life thus far.

I don't know what lesson was learned here. Look both ways? I looked dammit so I don't know. Maybe just expect that everyone is trying to take me out every time I get out there? I just ordered myself a RoadID bracelet so that when I am eventually flattened by some jerk driving a sports car, someone will know to call my husband or parents. I've become much better when it comes to paying attention to my surroundings while running but accidents happen and people get distracted easily in general.

Something I do know is that I would have had a lot of regrets if I died right then and there and that makes me really upset as well. There is nothing that I regret in life in general, but I'm definitely one of those people that sort of pushes things back and off for a while until I feel like the time is Right. For example, I've wanted a dog for at least 5 years now and where is it? Where is my dog? We could have found a dog friendly apartment to live in for the past 3 years but we never got around to it. What about all the places that I wanted to go to and see and all the things that I never got to do? I've never really been to Europe before... I've never been to Canada, or even Nantucket! It was always important to me that I see Korea at some point in life as well, but that also became somewhat less of a priority in my life over the years. I wasn't thinking about how I wished I was thinner, or less acne prone, or smarter, or anything like that. I don't think I'll feel guilty over missing a run or a stretching session for the next few months. I don't think this experience changed my life forever, but I think for a short period of time I will have a different outlook and be more proactive about life goals.

Food Court Adventures

2011-07-12T21:29:00.000-04:00

Things that I ate today:

Sarku Japan - Chicken combo. Abe calls this the "Cat on Rice". It was good, not very cat-like at all. It was also $6 which means that it's by far and away the cheapest dinner out with a friend that I've ever had in my life. Natasha and I planned on eating this - it was a premeditated food court visit.

Pinkberry - New salted caramel flavor with mochi and yogurt drops. Warning: this is very sweet. I should have gotten a mini size for something this rich in flavor. No regrets though, I almost finished the entire thing.

Tomorrow's eats can't possibly be this random and delicious. I'll try to eat a vegetable or two...

2 Workouts in 1 Morning

2011-07-11T20:33:00.001-04:00

Last night I got about 3 hours of sleep. I was restless, I was annoyed, and my back was fucking killing me. When my alarm went off at 5:30am the last and oddly enough the first thing I wanted to do was go for a run. At that point of the morning when you're already having a terrible day, you might well lace up those sneakers and hit the road because if you don't, you'll only feel worse about the day ahead. I'm telling you, the run itself was not that great, but it was so much better than having to slug through a run in 92 degree heat like I saw so many insane people doing this afternoon. They were probably all thinking, "damn, I shouldn't have hit snooze this morning, dammmmn!" I'm starting to notice the same runners on different routes now, it amazes me at how man people are up and able to function at such an ungodly hour.

The splits are pretty blah, but there were hills involved this time at least:

After my run, I popped in Jillian Michael's 6 Week Six Pack. I was running pretty low on time at that point and couldn't do the entire dvd, but I did a good 20 minutes of the 30 minute session (I skipped the warm up too, warming up is boring). This was actually a really good set of exercises. I hit all the major areas of the core and the exercises weren't too difficult, but they were very targeted and specific. There are two different sessions - beginner and advanced (all you need is a light weight), I did the beginner this time around but may move up the next time I do this one. I've had this dvd for like... a year but this is only the second time I've done it! I recommend it for anyone looking for a seriously quick core workout with exercises you don't come across everyday (no standard crunching).

At lunchtime I spent 15 minutes looking at and trying on shorts at City Sports but to no avail. I am just getting over the whole "my legs are fat and cellulitey" complex that I've always carried around, so I've been wearing shorts during my morning workouts. This weather is just way too hot, and I finally gave in. It's actually been going pretty well, but finding shorts that fit is hard. Other things that are hard for me to find a nice fit in: bras, jeans, pants, hats. I tried on 3 different brands of shorts but none of them were good. Currently, I have 1 pair of Nike shorts and 1 pair of CS compression shorts. I think that I will have to go to a bigger sports store to find a larger variety. On the upside, I had $7 CS bucks so I bought a new pink running hat. Maybe I'll remember to take a picture tomorrow of the bright ass pink hat that is going to be bobbing down the sidewalk before the sun even rises.

How Do You De-Stress?

2011-07-10T19:20:00.000-04:00

We almost have the house, it's not very far away from being 100% guaranteed. Everyone is like, "aren't you so excited to be buying a house?" Answer, "not really... more stressed about the entire situation." I'm glad that we're finally making a good financial decision and buying something at an awesome mortgage rate instead of renting an apartment that we loathe, but leaving a nice area and moving into the 'burbs is really scary. I am sure it will be fine - there is a Chili's down the street that we're both beyond excited about (for reals) and there are a lot of overall positives. On the other hand, it seems like the amount of projects and things that we need to think about (even though we didn't buy a freaking fixer upper) is really stressing me out.

Obviously not all of the items will be done immediately, but some of them are a real must - like we need a freaking refrigerator (the sellers decided to take it last minute). I'm completely overwhelmed with the tasks at hand being a first time homeowner. In complete and total honesty, the most I've ever done is paint a room and replace a light bulb or two. It's getting to me. I'm feeling really worn out and this process has been really hard on us, there are things that we already disagree on.

My running has been going much like the house process: slow and agonizing. You'd think that maybe having this extra stress would get me out there more for longer runs. Instead, what I'm finding is that I'm still getting out there 3-4 times a week but each and every time has felt hard, slow, and not very fun at all. I've been incorporating light weights and a longer stretching routine (especially before bed), but so far I'm not feeling any benefits besides soreness. I'm feeling really frustrated in life and it's funny how that carries into all areas not just one part. My solution to this starting tomorrow is trying to take my focus off of feeling good - I know that probably doesn't make any sense. This week I will integrate some hill running, because that will be pretty slow anyhow.

How do you deal with stress? I hear yoga is good for this, but yoga scares me and that is one of the activities that I really don't want to go to alone. I've been drinking a lot of wine, but that isn't really helping anything besides making it easier to pack up the remaining bottles (if there are any). I am just overwhelmed and although it doesn't keep me up at night (unlike Abe) but it just leaks into other parts of my life instead while I'm awake which is also no good. The worst part is that it's really not going to get any better anytime soon either! I'm sure it will only be worse once we move in - scary.

Going Straight To My Ass

2011-07-06T19:13:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I ran 3.5 miles before work at a comfortable pace and then did weighted squats 2 sets of 12 with two 8 lb. weights. One may think that I am in decent shape and 3 sets of 12 should be no big deal. This morning brought a whole world of discomfort! My butt was freaking killing me all day even after a long stretching session before bed. Getting up and sitting down was bad... walking to the printer was bad... the fact that this is happening is bad. I really need to make weights part of my weekly routine. I'm currently reading a book on running that is not very good, but a couple of the stressed points are that 1. you should do weights 2x a week (squats, lunges, upper body) and 2. do yoga 1 or 2 x a week. Those two items can help you avoid injury and get through long hard races - both of which I need. I probably should have done my squats without weights for the first week and then slowly incorporated them, but I'm no genius. Hopefully I can stick with this and get stronger, avoid injury, and firm up... I really need some firming up. I plan on ending my gym membership pretty soon so I need to learn how to do it on my own for a little while. I'm the kind of person that always does better with someone else there telling me what to do and how often to do it, on my own, I get really lazy. If I had a secret nanny cam on me while I was working out in my living room, it would be really embarrassing really fast. Just having an instructor in the same room as me makes me push so much harder, but I'm going to have to deal with that just for a little while until after we move and I can join a new gym or... continue to mostly run and wish that I did more weights and yoga.

The gelato that I'm holding in this photo is the best gelato that I've ever eaten, it's also the only gelato that I've ever eaten but I loved it to death. It's cherry yogurt gelato from some little pizza joint in the Encore in Las Vegas. If yoga was this good, I'd be able to touch my freaking toes.

4th of July Weekend Wrap-up

2011-07-04T17:48:00.000-04:00

Happy 4th of July weekend to all 15 of my blog readers! I hope you all had a nice relaxing time and ate a lot of delicious food. I had a really annoying cold the entire time but I still went out and had some fun. On Friday, we got out of work early and met with a mortgage broker (snooze) and hung out with my parents for a little while before laying low in preparation for the rest of our weekend.

Saturday after a disastrous short run, we went to a local BBQ to celebrate a friend's birthday and the almost arrival of his baby. He's a chef and fed us the most delicious cheeseburgers and homemade sausage, it was like a lot of meat, vegetarians were not welcome at that party. Ok, they were welcome... technically there was one there, but I have no idea what he ate. Is beer vegetarian? I heard a rumor that certain beers are not, but I guess I'll never really need to know the answer to that. We had a lot of fun but it was a long day out in the sun and I was really happy when we arrived back home.

The first thing we did on Sunday was go to our friend's bakery to rob them of all their pastries. I ate like 4 before we even got out of there, they're so tasty. Once Abe dragged me away from the croissants, we went to our friend's house on a lake where I ate and drank from the second I got there to the second I left. It was just a nonstop rotation of foods. I can't even remember everything that I ate but I'll try - chicken wings, pizza dip, pulled pork, brie and apple grilled cheese, a hot dog, pasta salad, stromboli, chicken and broccoli, salad, crab cakes, sweet tarts, and 2 glasses of sangria and a beer. The grilled cheese was made by Natasha and the green apple and brie together was like a dream.

After we stuffed our faces for 6 hours, a ton of people climbed into a boat and we headed out to watch the local fireworks. I'm not really someone who cares for fireworks but these ones actually were pretty spectacular.

The best part about these fireworks was how insane everyone around us was. There was patriotic music blaring from everywhere and there were probably a few hundred boats on the lake to watch, I've never seen so much boat traffic before. It was pretty awesome to say the least... so nautical.

Today on the actual 4th, I slept in late and went for a way too hot and sweaty run where I felt some congestion in my chest and I was also sorely out of shape. We had to prepare our apartment for potential tenants to come through, so we cleaned like mother effers... well I cleaned like a mother effer for like 3 hours: organizing, dusting, washing floors, throwing stuff out, etc. It was exhausting, but at least we have 3 window AC units blasting to keep us mostly cool and I finally found my compression socks that had been hiding for the past couple of months so that's cool.

I would pay a million dollars to have the rest of the week off from work. Instead, I have a week packed full of meetings (WHY?!) and poor person packed lunches. Maybe I'll treat myself to a few morning runs too!

Reverse Route

2011-06-29T21:50:00.001-04:00

Morning runs this week so far = 2 (Monday and Wednesday)

How did they go? Man, it's getting hot out there in Boston even at 5:45am it's already 70 degrees with high humidity. That's just crazy, but it's still way better than after work at 7pm when it's even hotter outside and there are more people out in about (and in my way). I've been having a hard time breathing, and it's really my own fault, I'm not taking care of myself. When my allergies are bad, then my asthma is bad, they go hand in hand. I ran out of Zyrtec last week and I keep forgetting to get more. By the time I remember, it will probably be August! I have my inhaler at least.

This morning I decided to try something new, or new to me anyways. I took my usual route and ran it in reverse. This is generally recommended to keep away boredom and it's like mixing it up without really mixing it up. I think it made it harder somehow - my brain was too active when I sort of wanted it to stay asleep. Usually, my brain feels totally and completely shut off until I hit around 1.3 miles and then I'm suddenly like "OMG I'm running WTF!" and then it becomes a little bit more labored for me, and so this time it felt that way the entire time. I actually had to think about where to turn and stop and look for cars, when it's usually just total reflex. This route reversal is probably better for a run later in the day for me and anyone else who likes to run while half awake. I followed my run with some core work that I remembered from an old pilates dvd and then I basically melted into myself in the heat of our apartment while stretching out. Central air cannot come soon enough, this window unit AC crap is total BS.

Oh and surprise, I have to start training for the Newport Half soon... that sort of crept up on me. I did sort of forget how much less time you need to train for a half than a full, only 12 weeks vs. the 18 weeks for the full marathon. I am going to loosely follow the Hal Higdon Intermediate Half Marathon Training Program, and I say loosely because I'm not good about following track workouts but I follow the long run schedule as closely as possible. The intermediate program is for someone who has already experienced going through this at least once before and is ready to alter goals from "just crossing the finish line" to improving upon previous time. It's too early yet to really have a goal time, but two years ago I ran about a 2:10 in San Francisco which... with the hills isn't so bad and it was my first distance race ever, but in Chicago my split at the half was 2:00 so I know that this one will be under the 2 hour marker, it's just how much I'm not sure on yet... 2:50 would be a good place to start. I have pretty much no talent in the distance field, but I like the half, it's long enough to feel like you've really worked for it but short enough that you can walk the next day. It's a very reasonable distance for people who don't have a ton of time.

This picture has nothing to do with anything, but it makes me laugh (this was done in Vegas). They took our faces and put them onto Star Wars characters... which Almost works... I mean they made me white and then they didn't exactly fit Abe's face quite right, but it's still hilarious.-- also, this is what I look like without bangs.

First Weekend of Budgeting

2011-06-26T19:02:00.000-04:00

Since last week our finances have dramatically changed. It's about time too, we were never really good with our money because we had no reason to be. Now that we are facing the realities of home ownership and every yearly cost that comes along with it, we really need to cut out all of our stupid expenses and be more careful about where our money is going.

Friday night:
Usual dinner - dinner out somewhere in the neighborhood of $75 or a ridiculous amount of takeout $50
Actual dinner - $28 for pizza and salad delivery... slightly over priced but still cheaper
Store - picked up ingredients to make a few dinners for my parents while my dad is recovering from surgery next week and a handful of items for us at home $37 and bought almost every single thing on sale or for a fraction of the price I would have paid at Whole Foods... this was a serious eye opener considering some of it was organic. I had two bags bulging full of food and $37 at Whole Foods would have gotten me 1/2 of that. Also, the delivery of said dinners to my mom made her really happy for a very small amount of cash.

Saturday:
Lunch - mom and dad picked up the tab for Chinese food after a 3 hour long house inspection.
Dinner - leftover pizza and salad with a hard cidar... usual dinner would be at a restaurant with friends and drinks somewhere in the neighborhood of $100.
Store - I had to go to the pharmacy to pick something up $0 copay and Abe needed some allergy medicine. Usually I would just buy whatever, but this time I brought a $3 off coupon and also have a special health care card discount on store brand products so we saved $7.50 off a $21 for 90 allergy pills. I was pretty freaking happy about that deal!

Sunday:
Lunch - we stopped and picked up sandwiches and drinks for us and my mom on our way out to see them quickly, $24. We don't normally go out for lunch on both Saturday and Sunday, so this is a bit out of the usual routine, but we were sort of stuck doing it due to timing so I'm glad we kept it on the cheap.
Gas - Our new car has a much bigger gas tank than our old car which is sort of good and bad... but instead of filling it up all the way, we only filled it with $30 worth... remember back in high school when you'd only fill it with $5 or $10 at a time? This is sort of how that felt...
Dinner - $0, leftover ingredients from my grocery store visit on Friday and some pantry items.

Besides feeling a bit poor, I was able to fit in a run this morning before doing a million other things so I could feel a bit out of shape too. It was my first run in 5 days and so I knew that I was going to feel slow, which I totally did. It didn't help that it was hot and humid out there but my splits were really really bad... at one point, I questioned the accuracy of my Garmin. Since I knew that the run was going to be unimpressive, I decided to add in some stadium stair running - and you would think that would make it worse, but I think it really helped me. Doing something different within a run makes it go by faster and honestly running upstairs is pretty enjoyable. I am still having trouble with my angle/tendon/calf post-running. After taking 5 days off, I'm surprised that it's still there but it is so maybe it's time to try something else. Someone on Twitter suggested yoga, and I have been thinking a lot about yoga and weight training and how they can improve my running so maybe this week I can try and add a little bit in and ease into that... sigh, we'll see. Maybe this week I'll continue to think about it more while I'm helping my family out after work, and next week I can actually do something about it...

Almost a Done Deal

2011-06-25T18:16:00.000-04:00

Today we had the inspection done on the house that we could potentially own in 2 weeks out in the suburbs... this is all happening at a swift and uncomfortable rate. Last Saturday, we got a "first look" at this house before it was officially on the market and immediately we placed an offer thinking that they would just laugh at it and wait for a better offer to come around. On Sunday we left for Vegas for a 4 day vacation, and spent half of it negotiating with the sellers. We ended up compromising on a fair price, and then set up the inspection for today. Our home inspector was Fantastic, very meticulous and really good at pointing out things that weren't necessarily wrong but things he thought we should keep an eye on. My parents came along and saw the house for the first time - my mother was trying to contain her overwhelming joy that we bought a house so close to them (15 minutes away), and my father was trying to contain his overwhelming joy that it wasn't a piece of shit. The inspector found a lot of little things that we are going to bring back to the sellers to ask them to fix or compensate for, and we have pending radon and well water tests as well.

This house is great because we can move in without having to really do much to it at all. There are some updates that we'll want to make over time such as new cabinets, counter tops, appliances in the kitchen, new flooring in the kitchen bathrooms and dining room, new light fixtures, new front steps, and a couple little odds and ends. There was only one medium sized project that needs attention immediately having to do with rot on some of the trim on the outside of the house but it's a very small amount and should be taken care of without too much money or stress.

The home itself sits on 2 acres of land so my dad is going to sell us his sit down lawn mower and leaf blower for an amazing deal - I'm pretty sure he's only doing this because he can't wait to upgrade to something even more powerful for his yard (expect a hilarious photo of me sitting on our new lawn mower with a beer in hand... is that illegal?). Taking care of that amount of yard isn't something that I really had thought too much about... but now that I'm thinking about having to water all those plants, I am starting to worry... it will be alright, I just can't forget this time.

I'm starting to worry about a lot of things. Sure, I'm ready to leave the city, but that doesn't mean that there aren't at least a dozen concerns swirling around my brain. Perhaps the biggest one is how broke we're going to be for the next 6 months. Most people forget that buying a house also means paying homeowners insurance, taxes, trash pickup (in our case), well maintenance (in our case), chimney maintenance and cleaning, higher utility bills, security system?, and upkeep of all things home related from the inside and out. I'll get over the money issue because living out there also means that we'll spend less money on most things like groceries, dinner, car insurance, all social activities, dry cleaning, shopping, basically everything else is cheaper being further from the city. This also means that I really won't have any running buddies, I won't have my group runs or my running friend up the street to hang with, and I won't have an awesome gym to workout at, no crazy awesome yoga studio (I don't even do yoga, but this concerns me), reliable ethnic delivery is probably going to be a major challenge to find (it's ok to call it ethnic delivery right?), it's really all these little things that sort of nag at me. This new town is very country-ish, which is great, but it's also very void of things like City Sports, Target, and malls. The good news being that I do still work in Boston we do still have access to stuff when we need it.

Anyways, this has been a whirlwind way to buy a house - and if everything continues to go smoothly, we'll be out of the city in August and into a house 35 minutes from Boston where we will eat bologna sandwiches on paper plates while sitting on lawn chairs in the new family room.

A Quick Vegas Recap

2011-06-23T23:25:00.002-04:00

Just got back from a Vegas vacation and it seems like we are the last ones to visit, so I'm just going to do a quick recap with some photos thrown in. We were supposed to go to the Grand Canyon, but then we needed to be in touch to work out an agreement on a house that we never in a million years thought the sellers would want to work with us on. So that's another story for another anxiety ridden post, but until then here it is: an unconventional Vegas trip for our 2 year anniversary.

We stayed at the Encore - loved it, would recommend it to anyone who likes nice things and $14 cocktails. It's less smokey and less crowded than the other hotels and really feels exceptionally nice.

We went on an Area 51 tour - everyone was freaking crazy. The driver was crazy, the other 4 tourists in our group were crazy. Obviously they didn't take us Into Area 51. If one more person asks me that, I'm just going to go total Nerd on them. Do you really think that secret government facilities operate day tours? Think about it. They took us all around it and to the Little Ale Inn, and to all these related locations that geeks think are cool.

For some reason we went to the aquarium in Mandalay Bay - not sure I'd do that one again, nice hotel though and we got to take a hilarious photo with a shark.

We saw all these hotels on the strip - MGM, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Palazzo, The Venetian, Paris, Treasure Island (regrettably), The Wynn, Bellagio, Caesar's, and maybe like a couple others... next time I really want to see Cosmopolitan and Aria.

Favorite dinner - Bouchon in the Palazzo. Loved the food, the service, the restaurant, the price. Loved the whole thing and would do it all again.

Favorite lunch - The Noodle Shop (get the pho) in Mandalay Bay

Favorite breakfast - The Wynn buffet (it's worth it)

Favorite gelato - the little pizza shop in The Wynn, the cherry yogurt flavor!

Whatever you do, do not go to the Grande Lux buffet. It's freaking shitty.

Shows - we saw Mystere and I loved it, but Abe just thought it was Ok. We used the "half price ticket booth" which definitely wasn't Half price but we had excellent seats at somewhat discounted prices.

Because of our pending house deal, we were Really good with our cash when we are normally those assholes who order rounds of drinks for everyone and their mother and then rounds of appetizers and then hits the blackjack table and slot machines and stops at Louis Vuitton on the way home. This time... this was a whole new way for us to vacation in possibly the most tempting city in the states. We spent less on this vacation than on any other vacation that we've ever taken (we did spend $15 to use the gym though!), so while Vegas can be very expensive, it can also be affordable when you stop and think about things. I will go back again sometime - most people tell me that the first time in Vegas is just sort of an intro., and each time after that it gets even better since it's less overwhelming.

Now for some quick pics:

Happy 2 year anniversary Abe!

Morning #2

2011-06-17T06:32:00.000-04:00

How about that? Seemingly overnight I turned into a morning runner. The hardest part seems to be mentally getting over the fact that it's such an early time slot to be doing anything at all. After you accept that it's better to get it over with now than to wait until later, it all just falls into place. Again this morning I woke up before my alarm went off at 5:30am and got out the door feeling pretty darn good (this is the only face I make in the morning).

Today's goal was to match yesterday's pace or faster, and maybe even go longer if I could. I surpassed yesterday's pace by a comfortable amount - God those splits are really good for me, but because of that speed I really didn't feel I could go any further and I probably should have pushed myself harder to get to 4 miles. Did those miles feel fast? Yes. I was working very hard out there, huffing and puffing and trying to get through it. Tomorrow I hope to do a long run.

The one thing that has been in common on the two nights before waking up early is that I've had a Woodchuck Hard Cider before bed - either it makes me fall to sleep easier or it just really hits the spot!

Time to foam roll and get ready for work! Hopefully today I won't spill an entire 10 ounce cup of coffee into the keys of my desk phone so that I need to turn it upside down to empty the liquid from it. It will forever smell like bad office coffee...

I Survived

2011-06-16T07:43:00.000-04:00

Today I did something very out of the ordinary - I got up at 5:45am and did my run before work and even had time to foam roll, and blog after. I'm so not a morning person, so this is one of my most impressive moments.

So how did it go? It actually went ok, my splits weren't impressive but they weren't bad either - basically what I like my average 3 mile run to look like when I don't have any specific goals in mind. It was sort of nice to be out there on the roads/sidewalks without having cars flying by and tons of pedestrians in my way. Sure it was early and I was tired, but I'm sort of always tired so it didn't feel much different.

I had a flash back of waking up in the summers to go to swim practice before swim coaching and life guarding. Do you know what that is like? Looking back, I have no idea how I did that and survived. I have no idea why I even did it... A sprinkler hit me, and I felt like I was standing right next to a pool again dreading having to jump in at 5:45am.

I might be doing this more often!

Chicken and Waffles

2011-06-15T20:40:00.000-04:00

Last night, I grabbed dinner with a girlfriend - who is in fact awesome because she reads my blog. Anyways, we went to a newish place near where I work and that's really when life got good. Enter: Chicken and Waffles. Alone they are nothing... together they are Everything. These are from the Back Bay Social Club - which is not as elitist as it sounds, it's just a simple American restaurant and bar. They're known for their "Social Burger" but these chicken waffles were right there with it. It was served with both a BBQ sauce and syrup on the side, and I would alternate my dipping - both were delicious. I might have paid $17 for this - which is outrageously over priced for a piece of fried chicken on a Belgian waffle, but hey sometimes you just have to spend a little bit of cash on yourself so it might as well be ultra enjoyable.

Now that I know I really really love chicken and waffles, it turns out that there is more to be had at The Hen House in Boston. I've found a new obsession, and unlike my crazy addiction to 2% Fage with honey pot, this is Not a healthy one... and it's far from low carb! It's sort of a celebration on a plate and I can't wait to have more.

I Wish I didn't Read That!

2011-06-14T20:46:00.000-04:00

You know when someone says, "I just read the most amazing book"... that doesn't always mean that you need to read it too. I choose to read books that not everyone adores, that aren't always on the top sellers list - not to try to be cool or different, but because when something gets too hyped up the let down is crushing.

I decided to take a chance and read a popular book that it seemed like Everyone was reading. I saw people reading it on the train, and it was seemingly everywhere - it will be turned into a movie in a couple years. The writing was fantastic, and it was so emotional... in a way that makes me uncomfortable. Maybe I'm missing part of my soul, but if I were a more emotional person this would probably make me cry a river of unending tears. I think it was supposed to be heroic or uplifting somehow, but to me it the opposite of that. This book made me feel sad and angry all at the same time. When I was done reading it, I felt like I wouldn't want to let someone borrow it because I don't want anyone else to read that. The story was hard to read, the book was hard to feel, and I didn't enjoy it. Is that the mark of good writing? It probably is, but I still don't want to read it again. I felt this same way about another book, which was also turned into a movie that many people seemed to like... but I couldn't figure out why.

I don't want to ruin everyone's summer reading list but if I could take the book out of my brain, I would in a second. In fact, I'd really love to run around and rip this book out of people's hands when I see them holding it on the train. It's not bad, but once it's in your brain you can't get it out. YOU CAN'T GET IT OUT!

Today's rant was about "Little Bee"... please only read this if you're willing to be uncomfortable and angry and sad. Who wants to be all those things in the summer? Not me. Not me at all.

Just a trip to the cape...

2011-06-12T16:57:00.000-04:00

We spent the weekend in Falmouth with our friend at his parent's house, which sounds like it might not be all that cool but once you pass a certain age staying at some people's parents house actually turns the corner from being really lame into being really cool again especially when they spoil the shit out of you. We were there with two other couples and it was a seriously awesome weekend full of many many cocktails, bad weather, and first time adventures.

You think I'm wearing that helmet and standing next to a Coke machine for fun? Oh no, we decided to take a day trip to Martha's Vineyard so we rented some scooters to get around the island. It was pretty cold that day and slightly rainy but that didn't stop us, and honestly I loved every second of it. Scooters are the most fun thing ever, especially in a quaint little vacation town.

If you've never been to Martha's Vineyard, it's totally worth the drive and ferry over. Even in shitty weather, it's the best afternoon you'll ever have. We rode all over the island and went shopping and had lunch at Nancy's. I don't remember each particular place we stopped but this was definitely in Oak Bluffs at the Flying Horses Carousel - the oldest operating carousel in the country where you lean off your horse and grab these little rings as the carousel is turning as a game, it made it much more fun than just sitting there going around in a circle.

Later, we were walking around admiring the waves in the ocean due to the crazy wind... and I decided to take a picture of myself and Abe and when I looked at the photo it turned out that Abe was not even there. It was just an embarrassing self photo... yes, my hair is crazy, it was one of those bad hair days.

Right when we were going to head back to catch our ferry it started down pouring and the boys decided to put the girls in a cab and they'd take the scooters back to the rental place. They were heroes battling that rain! To make it up to Abe, I got him a warm and dry women's size large sweatshirt... I didn't realize it was not a guy's sweatshirt until he stood next to a women wearing the same exact one but it fit her better... Abe was embarrassed.

Mike's parents were cooking dinner for us so we tried not to eat too many awesome island snacks because they were preparing a seafood feast: lobsters, clams, oysters, corn, potatoes, and lots of cocktails.

I ate the entire thing. Normally I am just a tail and claw kind of girl, but I took the extra time to make sure that I got every piece of meat out of the body and the legs and the little swimmers. It was worth the time to eat every bit of the sweet meat inside this thing. We stayed up late being ridiculous and slept like babies in the silence of Cape Cod.

Our little weekend vacation is over and it's back to an super disorganized apartment and a list of to-dos a mile long.

I Do Not Like Haggling

2011-06-09T23:13:00.000-04:00

This week we did something that I didn't think we'd do for a long time. We traded in our fancy sports car and got a Jeep Cherokee. I have been in older Jeeps before but I never really thought anything of them. To me, they are the original SUV for active/outdoorsy/low key people... that's not really us but at the same time it is sort of the direction that we find ourselves going. I can't really express how happy I already am with this new vehicle:

It takes regular gas instead of premium
Our auto insurance went down by over $200
It runs over city pot holes like they're nothing
The Nav system is by Garmin
It comes with a year of satellite radio
I can put dogs in the back... not that I have any right now
It still can drive really fast if you want it to

This car took us 3 days to get off the lot, so for 3 days in a row we didn't get home until really late and tonight was really the only night that I could do anything at all. I tried to go to the gym but there was no parking at all - it's a super busy parking lot, so anyways I came home and thought about it. I had two options: do nothing and since we're going away for the weekend that means nothing until Monday, or when the rain and thunder let up I could go try and get some kind of run in. So I slapped on some compression shorts and got out there, and I was surprised at how many other runners I saw out there. It was still raining but it wasn't all that bad, the main problem was the massive humidity. I got in 2.5 miles which is small time but it's way better than nothing. Mile 1 was in 8 minutes flat, and the second was closer to 9 minutes, the last half was also 9, and then I walked for a while before enjoying some AC on the couch. It felt really good to get some exercise and get my blood pumping.

We're going away to the cape for the weekend staying with friends and it figures that it is predicted to be a rainy weekend. It's ok though, rain on the cape is way less hideous than rain in the city. I'll eat a lobster for everyone.

Awkward Moments

2011-06-07T22:16:00.000-04:00

While sitting at work, minding my own business.

Email from Abe: Hey, can you do me a favor and pick up Infamous 2 at Game Stop today - "the hero edition".

Sigh...

At lunchtime, I ran across the mall and walked into Game Stop and no more than 2 seconds later a lanky/zitty/over eager dude around 19 years old came right up to me sort of how a cat would pounce on a wounded mouse.

Dude: May I help you?
Me: Do you have any Infamous 2 Hero Editions Left?
Dude: I think someone may have cancelled their order yesterday... hey Mike did someone cancel their Infamous 2 Hero Edition order yesterday?
--We walked over to the cashier counter.--
Mike: [labored sausage finger typing tap tap tap] Yes, let me check, I think that someone might have cancelled yesterday we might have 1 in stock.
--three way silence -- two of us potentially had boners --
Mike: We do have just 1 more for you. You know if you ever know of a game coming out that you really want, you should come in and pre-order it so that you have it guaranteed... we normally don't have the collector's editions in stock for walk-ins.
Me: Oh, thanks that's a great tip...thanks for the help...

Um, what just happened there?

Anyways, after that awkward transaction I rewarded myself with a Pinkberry and then had to lug a giant Game Stop bag with huge box inside back to my office where I promptly hid it under my desk.

A Run and A Recipe

2011-06-06T22:42:00.000-04:00

Mondays are the worst. I knew that if I didn't secure myself some kind of group/friend run that I might just sink into the couch and never get out - that's the kind of day that I had. In order to get home today, I took a bus to the subway to another bus and got home over an hour later. The car is still in the shop, they didn't have time to look at it today for some reason... they apparently have a lot of broken cars to fix besides ours.

Luckily my friend A was available for a 3.5 mile easy run around our neighborhood. The pace was much slower than what I would have done alone, but it went by much faster having someone there to talk to the whole time. I've been told a hundred times how great it is to go on running dates with friends but I just never really had anyone to indulge with. You know what makes an easy run harder? Talking a mile a minute while running... running and talking and breathing is way harder than I thought it was. Once I settled into a pattern things were fine, but for the first 10 minutes I was like, "this is the hardest thing I've ever done." It's cool though, you know what's harder than that? Having dessert every day for 3 weeks and then one day just not having anything in the house that can qualify as a treat. I'm going through withdrawals or something, like I'm ready to tear out my hair and run around screaming.

Dinner was really nice, I adapted a recipe that I found in Everyday Food. It's a really light and quick to make salad, so Abe didn't exactly love it, but I did.

Ingredients:
1 cucumber
1 package of baby tomatoes
1 red onion
olive oil
pepper
feta cheese
1 lb green beans
I do 8 shrimp per person, or whatever you choose

Chop a peeled cucumber, baby tomatoes, and a little red onion, throw together in a bowl with a bunch of feta cheese, sprinkled with pepper and add a tsp of olive oil, stir and put in the fridge for 20 mins. while everything else cooks
Steam green beans till cooked but still firm
Cook shrimp in a pan with butter and garlic for about 10 minutes till pink and cooked through, remove tails either before or after cooking
Lay green beans on the bottom, the salad in the fridge, and then the shrimp on top

For a hefty serving of this meal it's about 500 calories with the feta cheese being the calorie heavy item so you can adjust that as necessary. The real recipe called for garbanzo beans and I meant to use them but I totally forgot, I'm sure they would work well in this meal though.

Car Shopping is Around the Corner

2011-06-05T20:15:00.000-04:00

Once a week posting... I guess I will have to work on this. Life got busy, and I kept forgetting my camera oh well. There was a moderate amount of running this week with a 3.5 mile Boston edition of the Corporate Challenge - which I totally hated from start to finish. 12,000 people do not fit on Commonwealth Ave., I've never felt so squished before in my life, so yeah it was a slow run and full of really annoying moments.

Friday night we joined Costco. Yeah, I know, this is the very exciting life that I lead. It was slightly under-whelming, but it had potential and I'm excited to go back. I was really hoping that they would sell a package of 50 compression socks but it turns out that was a pipe dream... they don't even have compression socks. They do have 7 foot teddy bears, and 5 pound boxes of bacon though.

Saturday, we ate at a mall food court (one of my favorite past times) the line was too long at Sakura so I had to settle for that Cajun place...which actually was serving more of what I consider to be Chinese food. I really don't know why I find the food court to be so totally awesome, but I love it.

I bought a new dress (Plenty by Tracy Reese, her dresses fit So Perfectly and they somehow create curves where no curves exist). Ignore the weird reflection on my feet and the horrible location for a top to bottom shot... there was really nowhere else. The shoes were also really awesome, really really comfortable and I got them for a bargain price at Nordstrom Rack!

While we were shopping, we had our car washed and a fuse blew in the car somehow, and we couldn't unlock any of the doors, but luckily Abe figured out the problem and replaced the fuse not too long after with a lot of hard work. I'm pretty sure we both almost shit ourselves when we couldn't get into the car (The man pictured is not Abe).

Later, we went over to a friend's place to watch the Bruins game and witness his little grill burn down. I've never seen a fire extinguisher used before, but after that experience, I can tell you that they do indeed work very well and fast. It was a sad night, the Bruins lost and the grill died. Another surprise - I actually like Bud Light Lime and I really wish that I didn't. Sigh...

Sunday morning, our car failed us again. The same fuse blew, so Abe replaced it, but it didn't mend the problem. It's a much bigger problem than we initially thought and so... what do people do when their cars cause more problems than they are worth? In our case, we freaking get rid of them and get something else because life is too short to drive a car that fails to get the job done. Anyways, this totally screwed us. We had to have a friend come get us and then drive like a bat out of hell in order to not be super freaking late. In the end, we just barely got there in time but it was really too stressful for a Sunday morning.

We went to an engagement party where we ate loads of really fantastic Thai and Vietnamese food, and got to see a really nice Vietnamese engagement ceremony. It was a good time and a beautiful day, but a long day in general.

I will try to be better about posting this week for all 15 of my readers!

A Weekend of Eating

2011-05-30T19:57:00.000-04:00

This was a weekend of complete gluttony. I actually feel sick to my stomach just thinking about all the food that we ate.

Friday:
I got in a hot and humid run after work. For the past week since my 5k, all my runs have felt horrible. I feel out of shape and slow, and my watch reflects my slowness. Not sure what is going on, maybe it's just the heat? I followed the run with some light weights, I think adding back strength routines will help my minor nagging injuries. For dinner we went to a very suburban Not Your Average Joe's where I saw my future unfolding before my very eyes. Eating dinner were families with really young kids and middle aged couples at a carpeted restaurant (this freaks me out) eating average American fare for cheap. I dived face first into the bread basket, had buffalo tenders for an appetizer, a Thai chicken salad, a sangria and a beer. That's like 1,500 calories just in that meal alone, and later on I didn't stop drinking... I had a pear cider...

Saturday:
I was really good for breakfast and lunch, but for dinner we went out for Korean/Japanese where I chose based on the fact that I had a Groupon burning a hole in my wallet - and then I totally forgot to use the stupid Groupon! I'm so annoyed by that still days later. I had a huge meal of pork, tofu, kim chi and white rice and 2 beers followed by about 4-6 miniature cupcakes that I baked earlier that day. I needed to know if they were baked through at first and then it just turned out that I just enjoyed eating them.

Sunday:
I got in a brief run out in the heat - honest to goodness it was like 85 degrees and I wanted nothing more than to pack it in but I made it through 3 miles and then did some weights (weighted lunges, side lunges, triceps, abs) We went to visit our friend Natasha on her house by a lake. We all have a deep love for food, and it gets kind of ridiculous whenever we have a meal together but this might have taken the cake. Lunch was 6 marinated chicken wings, 3/4 of a burger, 1/4 can of Pringles, 1/2 a bowl of chips, baked beans, and a half a bottle of wine... I ate all that. That was lunch around 2pm, and we let that settle for a few hours and then it got really ugly with dinner: a whole lobster with butter, 2 strips of Korean beef, 3 strips of Korean pork, a bowl of white rice, a mini package of kim chi, a mystery mixed drink, and a mini cupcake chased with some Tums.

Monday:
This might be the worst day. I didn't really expect much for breakfast because I'm usually a small breakfast eater, just coffee and a hard boiled egg or something. Today, Natasha took us to Carl's Diner in Oxford, MA which was a Serious diner for Serious breakfast eaters. It looked like nothing special at all, but the food was really good and it was jam packed full of people taking advantage of their massive portions. I ate 2 scrambled eggs, many sausages, a piece of toast, home fries and coffee.

Yes, there are 8 sausages in that photo and I'm pretty sure that I ate 5 of them... I know, it's like mortifying. What's even worse... my husband ordered a steak and cheese omelet for 2 and he ate the entire thing! It was literally a mountain of food that somehow disappeared into his belly. Natasha got blueberry pancakes that were so overflowing from her plate that when she tried to add syrup it overflowed onto the counter. This was one of the craziest breakfast that I've ever eaten in my life, and this was at 11 am and we had lunch like 3 hours later regrettably. We had to go over to my parents house where they were grilling a massive pork loin. So for late lunch I had a piece of pork, a green salad, a scoop of rice, a mini cupcake and 2 oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.

Shoot me please, just put me out to pasture! I see a lot of salads in my future this week.

Tory Row 5K and the best flex ever

2011-05-22T20:29:00.000-04:00

I realize how ridiculous this photo is... and also how scary it is. This is one of the only times that my husband has taken me to a local 5K and he wanted to take a "before photo" and all of a sudden he's like: FLEX! You can see the result of that request... I wasn't even all that embarrassed. This morning's 5K was in Harvard Square and it was sponsored by Tory Row and the Cambridge Running Club. The best part about this race was how small it was, it capped out at 300 people and there were no cash prizes...which meant that the competitiveness went completely out the door and I was like "OMG I could get in the top half or the top 1/4!!" Guys, when it comes to running, placing is never something that I even consider because there's no point - I'm just not good enough. My primary goal of today was to break 25 minutes, I've been hovering on the 25 minute area for a while now and I felt confident that I could go under that today.

Since it was such a small race, I didn't exactly expect there to be much traffic control but there was enough to keep people safe (mostly) and there was a lead police car and an end police car which is way more than some races have. I was milling around the starting line debating doing a little warm up, when a friend of a friend showed up. She was a non-runner, and just totally hilarious about this whole thing. She just kept saying, "wow, it looks like these people are in Really good shape...wow, I think that I could possibly finish last... they're in Such good shape!" It was very funny to me because the people she was talking about weren't even all that great, she ended up doing very well for someone who doesn't run regularly.

The race was great, mostly flat with a few really annoying turns in there but the course was good. The unfortunate part of the race was running by all the mansions in Cambridge that I could never in a million years afford.

This race was so tiny that I practically finished all by myself... look at that form falling right apart with my arms all over the place. This was a Really painful race for me. My goal going into it: mile 1 in 8:00, mile 2 in 8:00 and then power through that last mile. What actually happened? Not that. Per usual, I went out too fast and couldn't hold it together in mile 2, and then mile 3 I was able to sort of make a comeback after catching my breath.

Um, 7:30 is way too fast for my first mile and I felt it. I mean it's not like that was painless and I felt light as air - OH no, that really hurt. In fact, this whole race hurt a whole lot. I felt like I was moving in slow motion but every time I looked at my Garmin, my pace was very surprising. But guys, I placed 75/271 people but more importantly I placed 11th out of 55th women in my age division (25-29). I totally know that this time wouldn't land me in the top 30 of my age division in any other race, but man it felt really good to see that for once. Also, PRing helped! My official time was 24:31 my previous best was 25:09 from back in March.

I've been icing my ankle all afternoon, I have no idea what the deal is, but I think it's some kind of tendinitis. It's been creeping up on me for the past 2 weeks and today with a hard run seemed to have aggravated it even further. Another PR another injury. Whatever, RICE it is for now and mini fist pumps.

Make The Rain Stop!

2011-05-19T21:42:00.000-04:00

It's been raining here in Boston for the fifth day in a row and you know what? Boston is Really Really hideous when it's gray and rainy. If I was one of the tourists walking around today, I'd probably hop on the next flight home. Also, the weather here is mainly why people are such Aholes... that's my excuse.

Even when it's raining, I still need to hit the sidewalks for some running because lately the treadmill has been really unappealing. This is the first year that I've really given running in the rain a chance, but I'm getting over the whole idea of it and getting used to it. Yesterday's run was pretty awful. I really let my tiredness get the best of me and before heading out I thought to myself, "hey self, just getting out there in the rain should be enough... and something is better than nothing." Well, not really because last night's something was practically nothing.

Slow pace, and small mileage... I mean yeah whatever, I never really run far these days but 3.0 miles is my minimum and I try to stick to that. I felt so burnt out yesterday and being burnt out and just feeling burnt out aren't the same.

Tonight, I tried a different approach. I ate a snack, sat on the couch, ate dinner, hemmed and hawed... and then suddenly realized that the rain had stopped for a minute so I grabbed my sneakers. Eating right before running was not a good idea but it was pretty light: corn on the cob, 5 campari tomatoes, and a slice of cheddar cheese. I know that was the most random dinner ever, but it worked. When I walked out of the house, I knew that I needed a better strategy. Leaving the house meant that I wasn't going to shelp along, no no, I had to run decent splits and I had to finish the stupid 3.0 miles that I set out to do. Goals: mile 1 under 9 minutes, mile 2 as close to 8 minutes as possible, and mile 3 just try not to die and finish strong. How did it go? Well I'm glad I set some goals.

Those splits are very good for me, one of my best 3 miles ever and more than that it gave me a little boost of confidence that I need for Sunday's 5k. I totally wanted to vomit the whole last mile, but I held it in like a champ... damn those tomatoes. I'm suddenly a little bit nervous about the race because it's a tiny race without any real traffic control, and in the email I just got about it they mentioned that people should study the map closely... um, is there a chance that I'll get lost? I don't like that at all!

Ah well, tomorrow is an off day and we're heading to the Red Sox game! I'm hoping that it doesn't rain on us, but it likely will. Good thing beer is already wet.

I Know a Lot of Idiots

2011-05-17T23:05:00.000-04:00

Whoever gave me a stomach bug for the entire day on Monday was Hilarious. I had to be at work... I had to be at work while sick. That was a very very unpleasant day, and I would not like to do that again any time soon.

In other news, my hair has again turned blond. I'm never messing with my hair color again. This is what I get for trying to make a low maintenance beauty routine into something more exciting, I get massive backfiring. The kind where I love how it all looks for about 1 week and then it all becomes much much worse than I imagined. How does this happen? I don't know, it's chemistry or something, maybe a little bit of biology mixed in. Either way, I do not appreciate all the comments that I've been getting lately from really stupid men that I know.

Idiot 1: "Wow, you are looking a lot blonder today!"
Same Idiot 2 days later, "wow you look Really blond today."
Idiot 2: "You look different today...[staring at my head]"
Idiot 3: "Did you do something to your hair recently?...[with a smirk on his ugly face]

Listen idiots... women sometimes like to color their hair, and sometimes it doesn't quite work out as planned and they are not blind to this. The best way to proceed with this change is to just not say anything at all, just do not speak any words from your mouth or you will sound like a jackass.

I've been tucking my hair into a hat to run now, that's what this has come to. Any sunlight at all may make it even worse, even if it's cloudy and raining outside, I'm just that crazytown about this now. I made a deal with myself that since I didn't run Sunday or Monday that I had to today no matter what it was like outside. It went a lot better than I thought it would since I've had such a long few days and the rain let up nicely. I have a 5k this weekend that I feel totally unprepared for, but luckily it seems like a low key and very very small race... I wonder if I could get into the top 1/4 of finishers... I wonder if I could finish in the top 50... Ok, that's probably not going to happen but I'm going to try and put it all out there and run fast. I really need to pick up some new insoles this week, my right arch has been bothering me. I'm telling you, every week my body feels like it's falling apart a little bit more...

A Sunday Shower

2011-05-15T22:57:00.000-04:00

I made these - I am proud... and I never want to do that again so I'll savor these flower puffs. They're awesome (Martha Stewart obviously) her idea, my manual labor.

It was a long day. 9:30am - 6:30pm... but the future bride to be was very happy.

Friday - Saturday Catchup

2011-05-14T22:15:00.001-04:00

OMG. Of course Blogger was down when I had like a million things to blog about, none of which were at all important or interesting to anyone but myself! Unfortunately, I've sort of forgotten almost all that I wanted to talk about so I'll leave you with this junk:

1. Friday's running goal: run faster in mile 2 than in mile 1 preferably under 8 minutes, and then try not to die after. I got part 1, but I totally wanted to die after. On Saturday I have a longer run planned, again, if I don't die that is. I really need to get past this 3 mile rut.

2. Don't know what to wear on your run when the weather is sort of in between cool and warm, say around 50 degrees? Do you think that long sleeves is just too much but short sleeves is too little since the sun is going down? I have an answer for you, and it's not exactly genius but I love it enough to share with you. I like to call it layering a perfectly awesome tank top (tucked in to prevent it from riding up) under a short sleeved shirt. It keeps you warm enough to not hate the wind, but cool enough that you don't feel over dressed. It's thrilling, I'm sure you're all impressed with my creativity.

3. We hate house hunting. It's sucking the very tiny souls out of our bodies. Every time we find a house that we like, there is always a very good reason not to buy it. It's like when you get a bonus and you're like: I have money to spend and I want to spend it, and then you can think of anything that you want to buy... like doesn't anyone want our money? My father in law thinks that the housing market in MA still has further to drop so we shouldn't rush into anything, my parents think that we need to buy something like yesterday and really... I just want a dog dammit.

4. Whatever you do, do not see Jackass 3-D. Just don't do that to yourselves, it was the worst thing that I've ever seen in my life. They took it way too far, I have no idea how any of them are still alive. There is way too much poop, puke, crotch, and cattle prodding.

5. Saturday's "long run" actually happened. My goal was to run 5 miles, and this was a more challenging route with 2 long hills during mile 1 and mile 2, and then mile 4 was around a track (god that was boring at shit) and mile 5 I sort of had a moment where I was really happy that I was out running this morning even if it was only with 4 ounces of coffee in me. Check it:

Later, we continued to house hunt. There was 1 house that I loved even though I can't exactly explain why other than to say that I can see us living there and being really happy. My husband is less convinced of this gut feeling. It really is not what anyone would expect that I would like... it's a farm house... but peeps it has a pool and like a 3,400 sq. feet of living awesomeness. Later I got really drunk on wine at a bar, and experienced my first Bahn Mi sandwich - it was awesome! I haven't been this drunk in ages. I blame Zyrtec but @theangryrunner disagrees... yet she has not seen the quiet low key me in one minute and then the loud-laughing-obnoxious me an hour later at a loud bar being all smiley and shit.

Weekends are confusing, I can't believe it's not even Sunday yet...

Group Run Successes

2011-05-09T20:56:00.000-04:00

This was my second week in a row of my Monday night group run this year. Last week was sort of a disaster - we were a couple minutes late so we had to race to catch up with everyone. This week, we made it there on time and there was a huge turnout. My goal this week was to pick someone and then keep up with them, and not die. I chose carefully... there was one girl last year who ran at an easy pace at the beginning and then picked it up for the second half and I remember being able to mostly keep up with her before. She led me to these splits:

I'm not sure that my Garmin has ever seen a full mile split under 8:00 before. Sure it was just under by a hair, but it makes me feel pretty good considering all the time off that I had last week and the week before. Yeah, I just checked, that was pretty speedy compared to my usual pace. That same girl that I was chasing turned out to be super friendly and we chatted after, she didn't remember me from last year (who would?) and she also didn't get into this year's New York Marathon. Anyways, I'm glad that she said Hi because I'm ridiculously shy sometimes.

Besides my group run today, I also found the time to buy 3 pairs of shoes and blow my nose 50 times.

Does Zyrtec give anyone else crazy dreams and totally space shot behavior? Today was really strange, but I ran pretty well so whatever!

What A Week - Takeout and Weight Loss

2011-05-06T22:28:00.001-04:00

This week did not go well. I had to work late most days, only had one day that I could run, and yeah yeah blah blah. Shit happened. I did have time to get my hair done - obviously because a girl can't go walking around with bad roots and Lilo length hair. I love my hair stylist, I love my current salon, I love those flowers sitting on her shelf... I did not like the price of this day of beauty. You'd think that I was transformed into a super model, but I can assure you that I look only slightly different today. Luckily, I'm pretty lazy so I won't be back till my hair is way too long and my roots are way too awful.

This little week of hell also included 3 nights of takeout dinners that were not particularly low carb:
1. A sub shop down the street. I inhaled a steak tip salad, the insides of half an Italian sub, and a few bites of a Buffalo tender that was way too spicy.
2. An Italian quick takeaway chain. Those idiots forgot my entree. Luckily, we ordered enough food so that even without my entree I still ate mozzarella sticks, meatballs, sausage, tiny bruchetta, and some of Abe's sausage and chicken "mess" with pasta.
3. Took a chance on Indian. I am not even exaggerating when I say it was the best Indian that I've ever had and it was from some nothing special looking place that I've passed by a thousand times and thought it looked sort of bad. I was totally wrong. I ate vegetable samosas, kabuli chana, and chicken tikka masala all served with basmati rice.

These meals sound huge, but I barely ate more than a couple bites of lunch on these days...

Why do I share all these gloriously gluttonous meals? Because it so happens that this week I've hit my goal weight. I've officially lost 10 pounds since February. It was really slow going, the pounds really just inched away but the moral of this story is that it can happen if you have the patience. Just don't give up, I didn't crash diet, I made a decision to cut bad carbs out of my life 90% of the time. The results are that almost all my pants are loose now, I can wear a fitted shirt and not feel like my belly is protruding, and my face is much less full. I'm not perfect and I'm sure that I'll be up and down a few pounds as I usually am, but I'm not going to pile back on those 10 pounds because they did not belong on my frame.

Besides the scale, I also feel much better. I picked up a few good habits along the way:

My coffee no longer has vanilla soymilk/creamer and sugar in it, I drink it black.
I don't buy processed foods like Wheat Thins or Cheez-Its
We make our own sparkling water with our Soda Streamer

My working out hasn't really been that great these past two weeks since I pulled something in my leg last week and then had to work late this week, so I made the decision to skip my 5K tomorrow. I don't want to drive all the way over there just to be disappointed with my run, I can do that here just as easily! In two weeks, I have another race so it's no biggie. I might try to run in the mornings next week...ahhh! That is the only way that I could possibly run and work late - I am so not a morning person, this experiment should be interesting.

A Burger Worth $21

2011-04-30T11:18:00.000-04:00

I don't go out to eat as much as I used to, life has gotten really busy but some things remain important to me - such as finding the time to dine out with friends. When something new lands in Boston (it's not all the time) we need to get out there and try it out - Enter, "the $21 burger".

I realize what that sounds like, it's just a freaking burger! Well, no it's not, it's probably one of the most delicious burgers that I've ever had (only the burger at The Highland Kitchen rivals the flavor). The burger itself is made out of prime steak vs. ground beef. It's topped with caramelized onions and sharp cheddar cheese. When they brought this tray over, the burger was the size of my head... just the sight alone made my mouth water inappropriately.

I've had a lot of burgers in my life (including a $25 burger in South Beach that was less than stellar) and I truly don't believe that you Need to spend a lot of money for a good burger but sometimes it's worth it (and I'd be way too curious not to try it). I've had a lot of really great burgers made at home and thrown on the grill in the summer. Our friend seasons them really nicely and the quality of the meat is nothing more than average, but then again I can't just call him when I want dinner. I'm also a big fan of In-and-Out and also Five Guys and still I have to say that this burger at The Back Bay Social Club is worth every penny and every bite.

This place serves way more than just burgers, they have a pretty extensive menu of Modern American food. My appetizer was the Meat Candy, which was pieces of kilbasa marinated in brown sugar and pineapple:

This was also delicious, it reminded me of how my mother used to serve these at her parties growing up. It was sweet and juicy at the same time, really just a tiny little bowl bursting with flavors. I probably could have eaten a whole gallon of this and been perfectly happy. Just seeing this appetizer on the menu made me really happy, it's something that I've never seen in a restaurant before.

Three of us approved this place (Hi Natasha, Hi Abe) and we would recommend it to anyone. The food was great, the place has been slightly updated, and it was an overall good time. There is a bar that was pretty busy on a Thursday night as well.