Happy New Year!

Has it really been 3 months since I last posted? I have a lot of good qualities but apparently stick-to-it-ivism is not one of them. Alas, I am going to make another go at it. It's a new year - 2011, which is crazy. I will be 32 this year, which is also crazy. 32 is one of those ages that I remember thinking "Wow, she is a GROWN UP" about when I heard someone was that age, all the way up through my early twenties. And now I am here.

So, since September I have continued working at my same bogus but lucrative contractor gig. In October we went to Memphis, which was awesome, I would buy a condo there if they were $40k. In November, I felt slightly sorry for myself one Friday night and the next day we wound up with an 8 week old puppy. She is perfect - Nadine. Crazy, and puppies/dogs are hard, but we love her very much. Then later that month I completed the Philly Half after not running since early October due to a painful groin [that's what she said]. I was nervous but determined. My goals were finish, don't stop/walk unless dying, don't die and break 3 hours. I succeeded with all at 2:51, even walking to dinner that night. Walking is a loose term, I was gimping hard-core. And for like a week after. But I am very proud of myself and proud to poo-poo people who thought I was kidding. It was a good feeling - required a lot of Advil and gummi bears and gatorade and I almost cried at mile 12 but the end was worth it. I will actually train for one next year and maybe get up to my goal time of around 2:20-25. We shall see.

For 2011, my goals are pretty simple. Floss more, complain less, run, learn to drive a stick, maybe get married. Side notes are losing 30 pounds and getting my shit together [cue the laugh track, when aren't those my goals]. I started out today by eating ok - "healthy" bagel with 2 fried eggs, tea, some juice, an apple. I had this all after a 2.4 miles run that I completed in slightly less than 32 minutes. Kind of suck city but I hadn't run since November [the Half Marathon] so I was glad to just get out - it's also 50 degrees out [after a gnarly blizzard last week] and I would be an absolute lazy shit if I hadn't gone out. I will work on short bursts and try to get down to 10-11 minute miles. I can do it, I think. I also need a new race for this year. I should do a late winter one but I'm guessing that won't happen. So spring, summer - we'll see.

Ed just made a fantastic sauce, so we had some fusili and salad and garlic bread. Now I am having some wine and probably some chocolate. Not a bad way to start off the year!

20 Day Time Warp

I've been a bad blogger, again. Whatever, starting a-fresh today.

Ran my 10k yesterday! Woo-hoo! It was EIGHTY-FIVE DEGREES. I'm not joking. In April, I was afraid it would be too cold but never even considered it feeling like July. A little preview of summer training I guess? I will def need to start waking up early. However, I ran the whole thing and didn't die or pass out so I call that a victory. 1 hr and 18 minutes, I came in like 1650 of 1750 - whatever. I wasn't last, I broke 1.5 hours and I didn't die. Goals = Met. Daddy was proud of me.

One goal I have not met is my weight loss. I think I am moving into hardass crazy pants diet for May [minus Vaca] and up until my birthday. This will be challenging in summer, BBQs and Sox games, but I really need to get lighter so I can run faster so I can EAT MORE> the ultimate goal.

For today, no exercise as my legs feel like Jell-O, I worked from home and had:

2 eggs fried in EB [late, brunch-ish]
2 sausage links
Cup of tea
some watered down juice
An apple
A yogurt

Dinner now, I am starving!

Is it May yet?

I am DYING for summer, maybe it's the house that I so want to improve yet keep telling myself that all the projects will be so much easier in warm temps, maybe it's the dark that comes too early, maybe it's the boredom [which is scary these days] of work, maybe it's the outrageously priced heat that still doesn't warm my house...but I am wishing for a heat wave and a break with my entire being. I am not depressed winter blah-y, but I'm just so over it. More frustrated and stuck, I guess. Not over it enough to move of course, then I'd have one less thing to complain about.

Anyhow, so I went to Shaw's after work, around 6 and by then I had the LBS shakes pretty badly. Thanks, salad! Upon arriving home, I shoved down a Fiber 1 pop-tart [delish, still not sure if I trust these Fiber 1 things, but people seem to sweat them. Who would've thunk that Fiber would become cool or trendy or appealing? Marketing is an odd and weird kind of geniusy field] and that helped immensely. Then I made one of those quick stove-top pastas in the bag - alfredo and I threw some tomato in there, it was really good but I was also like drool-starving [I'm copyrighting that] so who knows. I just had some cinnamon raisin toast and some tea for dessert. Yum. I think I'm done for the day? I wanted a cocktail when I got home and did not have one so brownie points there. God, now I even sound like an alcoholic. Yuck.

Tomorrow is the iCycle. I'm doing a bagel to carb up [love the justification games my mind plays] and then a 3 we head in town. Fun times. We'll see. I started to actually write down my "training plan" for the 10k. i am a bit nervous but honestly felt unprepared for the 5k and managed that without dying or even hurting too much the next day. I've realized a huge part of my procrastination is that I neglect to cement things - like write them down, make that appointment, call whomever. Instead I dilly-dally and obsess. Not sure why my brain prefers the latter but I've never claimed to understand my brain. Also, I keep forgetting everything. Mid-blog, I remembered something I want to blog, and now I have zero idea. That is terrifying. More crosswords and solitaire and scrabble.

Diners, Drive-ins and whatever on Food Network is making me so hungry. They just featured mozzarella sticks in Atlanta that are wrapped in pasta pre-fry. OMG. I'm looking up tickets on Expedia right now, not joking.

That's Not Real Exercise

I just tried to guilt Ed into getting me a chipwich. The cornerstone of my argument was that I did about an hour of the Wii Fit today. To which Princess replied the above. He's right, I should be honest with myself that I need to kick it up a notch if I want to be HBT [hot by 30]...why is it so cold? And why can't I go to bed early? I got a planner yesterday, maybe I'll try and schedule my entire February and then stick to it. I need something, my dad ran 4 miles in -4 this morning. He isn't fat and he's going to live to be 90... Maybe if we get a dog, then I'll get up early? But then we'll have a dog, which I want but I can't deal with that right now. Vet bills and feeding and potty-training or whatever the hell it's called for puppies. I will work to get skinny so I have good, healthy habits in which to raise a teeny French Bulldog. Or two, I think we should get 2 at a time, that way we can watch them wrestle. And it's unlikely that they'd both die at the same time. Is that creepy? It might be.

I am watching Food Network, so not a good idea for a hungry Saturday night. Giada just took a trip to Italy. If I get married, we're going to Italy for like 4 weeks as a vacation: fashion, water, islands, old paintings usually of Jesus, old buildings, not understanding what people are saying around me, wine, frangelico and most important FOOD. A perfect country. I do wish I liked espresso, that is the only piece of that whole culture that I don't dig and I feel like I'm missing a lot. But I would love to start at the top and work my way down, so awesome.

Ok, I'm tired. Here's a sum up:
1 hour Wii Fit
Water
Tea
Salad [spinach, tomato, mozarella]
Pumpkin/Mozarella ravioli's from Dave's w/ tomato sauce
More tea
A glass of wine
3 small pieces of the savory cran bread w/ cream cheese and garlic salt

This is where I'm at. I'm starving, it's Saturday night. I have a headache and I keep yawning. We watched our Netflix already [The Wackness? It had its moments but overall was pretty wacky and not in a good way]. I want a brownie sundae with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, gummi bears, banana and whip cream. Instead I will go to bed instead....hopefully this ravenousity will subside by morning.

Weekend Update

So Saturday we headed back, I won't get into details but I have another item on my long list of why I hate stupid Jersey cops. Seriously, I'm flying to and from the next time we go see them. Whatever. Plus there was traffic getting into NY state. After some discussion with my parents' neighbor Evan, we may need to reevaluate our route if we do choose to drive down again.

On the bright side, had a PHENOMENAL everything bagel with butter and CC [it was a theme of the weekend apparently] and a tea from a place called Bagel Garden [?] on route 202 in East Shitshoe Nowhere NJ. It was really good. Princess had some kind of sandwich with lox and tomatoes as well, and he said that was really good too. So good find, good stamina for the ride home. Had a later pit stop at a rest area in CT and split a chipwich and faux ice cream drumstick from the machine, and a hot cocoa from the machine [usually I'm a big fan, this one not so much. Ed drank most of it.]. Made it home in like 6.5? hours, around 6:30. Napped.

Headed over to Erin's to catch the game. I love that we live across the street from each other, I will be sad to move if we ever get our house [it's going well, I'm just a pessimist by nature about big deals like this]. I showered, popped on sweatpants and was over there in 2 seconds. We ordered some pizza - big shout out to Angelina's in Teele Square, by far the best pizza in the area [trumped only by Pinnocchio's in Harvard Square, IMHO], I had a Nantucket Nectar's lemon tea. No booze, I was exhausted and kind of trying to chill out? Ed is on the wagon, I am definitely not but trying to be more conscious. Erin made pudding, chocolate, it was awesome. I learned she hates the skin on the top. no idea why I found this surprising [I HEART the skin], but I did - totally makes sense in hindsight. Anyhow, so good.

Stayed over there until like 11:30, came home and crashed. The game went 12 innings and we lost so I'm glad I went to bed. I am so not quitting on my team but if TBS and MLB insist on having 8-8:30 and 9 pm starts, I'm going to bed, that's it. Slept till ELEVEN the next morning....that was nice.

Sunday, got some WPF, nad 2 pieces of toast with 2 fried eggs. Some tea, some juice. Headed over to WR after some cleaning and errands. Had some grapes throughout the afternoon. Daddy made a dinner of steak, mustard sauce, potatoes, asparagus, pork. Had a chunk of the WPF Pumpkin bread pudding cake I brought over. Had a glass of red wine and some juice. May have had a banana? It's Monday night now and it's all a blur. Drove my dad to the airport for his trek to Azerbaijan, he is excited and nervous and so are we.

Nice Day for a Purple and Yellow Wedding

So Friday started with a late-ish wake up, 9 maybe? Ed and Keith went to the gym, I discovered Queen Bee on MTV. OMG, if anyone needs reason to think there is no hope for future generations, check out that program. Such brats, they were impressively awful and I'm quite accustomed to that kind of behavior.

Headed into their little town for an everything bagel with butter and cream cheese and some tea, a Cherry Zero Coke too. Had a banana and some mini Reeses and Kisses throughout the day to snack. Ran some errands and tried to help Keith out as best we could, checked into the hotel at 3. Hotel is a stretch actually. It was fine, let's just say I am not an inn/B&B person, we'll leave it at that. There were sheep grazing in the yard. I am not a farm person either.

Wedding was awesome, really really beautiful and sweet and earnest and well-planned and thoughtful and gorgeous. Most importantly, they both seemed to have a genuinely superb times, and that is what matters. I won't babble personal details of my BFF's wedding on the Interwebs, but everyone there had a 100% blast. As a taste, the last song they played for the night was Scenario. It doesn't get much better than that.

The service was 9 minutes long [awesome] and followed by drinks and apps. I had a couple Tanqs and tonics [is it bad that I kind of love gin? does that make me a holic? Princess recoils at gin and he is way more of a drunk than I am....hmm] and some mozzarella and tomatoes and prosciutto and melon. So good. Dinner was awesome, filet with asparagus and potatoes in a mushroom sauce. Had a roll with butter, some white wine, some red wine, another Tanq and tonic. Danced the night away, had some cake....soooo good, like a berry shortcake/sponge cake/angel cake thing? Whipped cream, layers of white cake and strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. So good. More candy from the favors too, of course. Not sure if there's ever been a scenario in my life that I've rejected candy when placed in front of me.

That was that, we wound up at the bar, caught the end of the Sox game [Ed and I acted like assholes, of course], made a bet with Keith's wonderful dad about the Phillies-Sox World Series that is hopefully coming down the road. Headed over to another bar for a nightcap and some pizza. I surprisingly refrained from the pizza and stuck to a DC since it was late and I was driving and had sobered up a good while ago. Headed back to Sheepville and for some sleep.

Blast from the Past

So acck, my last post was Wednesday [even though it's dated Tuesday...confusing Blogger quirk, I think...right now it's Monday night but I bet this will continue to say Sunday. It's like back to the future!], let's think.

So, Wednesday night, definitely did not do my arms, did dye my hair. Slept until the glorious hour of 9:30 the following morning, ran around all day with plans to leave at 4 to head to NJ/PA. I had a yogurt and an apple for breakfast, a Finagle Everything with butter and cream cheese for lunch [with a DC]. Went to Target and did some laundry, tried to iron with my mom. My lack of domestic skills continually impress me, it was hysterical. Packed up, was ready to leave at 4:15, Princess was late and we left a bit before 5.

Got some McD's at a terrifying rest stop in Connecticut or NT state, not to sound like a snob but they're all the same. Had my typical [I need to get back in a once a season fast food pattern, way too much lately] Cheeseburger Happy meal [girl toy] with additional cheeseburger on the side and a DC. Continued on our way, made it there around 10? Not so bad.

Met Keith and friends Sonny and Lynn from CA out and about in New Hope. Had some bread and a couple glasses of Riesling. Bar-hopped and switched to DC but had a few sips of Lynn's delish grapefruit and Belvidere and my my my, that was pretty damn good. I think Howard Stern is a big fan as well, and I learned today that his favorite beverage is my favorite beverage: cranberry juice watered down with seltzer, so maybe we share taste buds. He is definitely way more disciplined than fatty-me. Anyhow, couple sips of that and we were off.

Hit up Wawa for late-night goodies. That system is awesome to tangent a bit, you go in, pick a bunch of crap on a touch screen, it's easy, intuitive, there are a million options, the food is GOOD. Call me a product of the internet age but the less I have to talk to someone, the better. I'm not alone in this, I have a co-worker who is not a big fan of Papa Johns, but specifically orders their pizza because you can do it online. Kind of sad, kind of awesome. I had some mac and cheese, Darling had some chicken fingers and Kieth got whatever he calls a hoagie. Hoagie to me sounds like something one spits out in the shower. Gross.

Headed back to Keith and Alanna's ADORABLE and way not too tiny home, this was the first time we'd seen it. So cute, wonderful old floors and high enough ceilings and such a great yard and cute neighborhood. I'm super stoked for them. We also met their little kitties that had separate names that I can never remember, I will call them Oggie collectively because both names sounded something like that. They were also adorable, so young and bouncy and full of spriteliness. You can tell Princess has never had a cat because he was like fascinated that they ramble around and pounce on you all night, but they're kittens!! And even though he claims to be allergic, I have a theory that Ed secretly likes cats more than he lets on. Cats sure as hell love him. What is it that makes pets dig people who aren't really animal people? So weird.

Then we woke up the next day to WEDDING DAY!!! So exciting. I should separate my posts now.

And so it begins

Nearing the end of my 20s, I'm starting to think I should maybe get my act together in various segments of my life. One of these areas needing improvement would be the over-sized lump that my stomach has turned into, with footnotes of my 2nd and now 3rd chin. I am finally starting to concede that the blessed metabolism of my youth has finally gone the way of the dodo. The more-of-me-to-love is a result of the past few [read: 10] years of my wonderful Just-Say-Yes diet and non-existent exercise regime. It's a simple enough formula: I like food and hate moving. I am by no means morbidly obese or in any danger healthwise, but it's no fun when your pants hurt to button. Plus, I am always tired and I'm starting to resent the energy those bratty Somerville High kids that I take the bus with always seem to have oozing out of them.

So, in an effort to stick to some kind of program and yield positive results, I've decided to embrace my inner-geek and blog my getting in shape experiences. Based on my flexibility [ha] and penchant for bagels, it should be hilarious. And speaking of hilarious, the title for my blog has been inspired by our recent trip to Montreal...where we went explicitly to sleep late, eat tons of deliciousness and drink wine. Mission Accomplished overall, but back to the title:

Our first night there, after walking what felt like 3 miles [or 47 kilometers...whatever] to get the lay of the land, we wind up in this little garden level, super-cute Italian joint. Family run, the husband greets and seats you, the wife fills your water glass and brings you menus, so adorable. It was a beautiful summer night, so I had decided to wear one of those flowy summer tops that look put together but are still soooo comfy. Upon entering, Darling asks for a table for two and the husband immediately brings us over to a table mumbling in a Welcoming Old Man French/English and looking at my belly ".....yes, for two-AND-A-HALF" *smile, smile*. Ed and I look at eachother. Did I just hear that right? I'm not used to the accent yet and my ears suck. Needless to say, upon bringing us [warm!] bread and setting up our places, there is a bit more gesturing and smiling, all around my mid-section, with proud side glances over to Ed. Confirmed, he thinks I'm one and a half. Not the first time it's happened, but the first time it's had its own catch-phrase. Awesome.

Ed and and I laugh, I make some kind of obligatory joke but then I remember we brought our own wine, and a nice bottle! I will not have this guy thinking I'm willingly FAS'ing my unborn, so I know I have to let him know there is no fetus in the hizzouse. He comes over to take our orders, I unintentionally ask how big one of the pasta dishes is and he answers that it will be perfect for me and junior. That's my cue, "Ha ha ha, yeah but there's no half" and I for some reason [low blood sugar?] feel the need to further humilate myself by flattening my shirt to my stomach to back this up and then saying, "But don't worry, I still eat like one and a half". Good times all around. I make sure to bust his balls on the way out, in a gentle manner. Nice way to start a vacation; at least this gave Darling something to chuckle about the rest of the trip.

Back to now, it's Labor Day weekend, vacation is over. Today is August 30th...where the hell did the summer go? Regardless, my dear friend/running [read: walk and talk shit with occasional 2 minute jogs in between] buddy Erin and I have agreed to do a 5k on October 4th. All those motivational articles say to set something up that you have to stick to. This will be the first of little goals to be met, to-do lists work for me at my job and always worked during school, so I'll give it a shot. Plus, I have other motivating factors-
1. I need something to blog about.
2. As I type this, my 62 year old dad just registered for his second marathon of the year in San Antonio. He is like that LaFontaine? or PreFontaine? dude. If he can run like that, something must've trickled down genetically, maybe I just need to kick it off...
3. Ed, understandably, has very little faith that I'll stick to this. Proving him wrong would be sweet. Not sweet like the third of the XXL Toblerone [god bless Duty Free!] that I inhaled at 10:30 last night, but still quite satisfying.

With that verbose intro, I'm supposed to be tracking my food and exercise crap right? Here goes: I slept like shit [allergies + landlord having floors downstairs done AT 8 AM ON A SATURDAY] and was lazy so I went to DD for breakfast, per usual: a HEC on a croissant and a large tea with skim and 2 Splendas. Croissant was NOT worth it. As penance, I'm now off to sit on the bike for an hour. Last year, on a health kick, Darling went and got us a very nice exercise bike for our living room - I have no excuses! It's 85 and muggy out, so I'll watch Intervention and bike up fake hills. Living the dream.