Where I Wanna Be

Alright, I have a few things that I need to get off my chest:

1.) The main reason that I wake up early enough on the weekends to workout is so that I do not feel guilty about spending half of my Saturday laying in bed chilling out with my dog and being lazy.

2.) As I was doing the aforementioned laying in bed with the dog – my AWESOME husband was hard at work in the office helping sort out work stuff for me.  Seriously – he spent all afternoon writing a computer program to help me with a project next week.  He probably saved me about 15 hours worth of work and countless headaches.  I nominate him for husband of the year. (Doesn’t he look cute with his brow all furrowed?)

3.) I have taken to eating gummy bears.  This is a relatively new thing and I attribute it to my new vitamins which are very gummy-bear like in consistency.  Clearly, I can’t start eating the vitamins by the handful – so, I have picked up a nasty gummy bear habit. 

I am on my second bag in as many weeks (and need to remember to add these to the grocery list tomorrow).  This morning I decided to use them as “fuel” before my bike ride. 

Whatever I need to tell myself to justify my addiction I guess…

4.)  I can also add this stuff to my growing list of food obsessions…

The fine folks in the marketing department at Butter & Co.should just rename this stuff – “A Little Slice of Heaven in a Jar,” because, that is what it is.  At last count today, I have consumed 1.5 English muffins with this smeared all over them.  And, the night is still young…

I feel much better having gotten these things off my chest.  Now I must go join husband of the year and the little monkey on the sofa.  I have just been informed that there is a documentary on Arizona rock bands (The Refreshments and Gin Blossoms) on the agenda for the evening.  Off to the couch I go!

Yesterday was a big day – I picked the first ripe tomatoes out of my “backyard garden” (again, I use that term very loosely).

With the exception of my jalapeno’s, my vegetables have not really flourished this year.  To date I think that I have gotten approximately two tomatoes, two banana peppers, some basil and oregano (but my dill died) and roughly 100 jalapenos (that plant is out of control).

It is kind of frustrating – because I have actually managed to remember to water them, but, it has been SO hot this summer.  Not to mention that something seems to like snacking on my tomatoes and making them rot.  Next summer I may try raised bed gardening.  Maybe trying to do these in pots is part the problem?

At any rate, I cut my lovely tomatoes up and had them for dinner tonight.  Very tasty.

I have still sort of been in my funk.  This week I am not attributing it to lack of exercise, because, I have been getting after it pretty hard in the gym.  Basically, I think that it boils down to being a little bit burnt.  With the exception weekends, observed holidays and two half days (to watch basketball in March), neither Danny or myself has had a proper day off since early February.  I KNOW that is only 5 months, but, these summer months at work, they drain me. 

I guess it turns out that the Spring vacation we usually plan before my “busy season” gets kicked off is more important than I realized.  Hopefully next year we can take one.  Until I get a break, it is time to suck it up and get over it.  I am lucky to have a good job – my life is actually pretty sweet  and I need to get over myself and get back in the game. 

For real, how many people get to take their dog to work with them?  Not such a bad deal I have going on.

This weekend I decided to make an effort to get back into the swing of an exercise routine.  On Saturday we hopped on the bikes for a pretty decent little ride.

A little over 8 miles in roughly 50 minutes.  Not too shabby.  My legs were feeling it by the end of the ride (I proclaimed, “I’m DONE” as soon as we rode into the driveway).  Today we squeezed in a short 20 minute ride (a little over 3 miles) – it was cut a little short due to storms rolling into the area.

It felt nice to get back out and sweat a little bit.  The goal for this week is to try and maintain some structure in getting back to the gym for a few weight lifting sessions as well as continue with the cardio. 

I don’t know if I will ever be one of those people who says, “Man, I can’t WAIT to hit the gym today!”  But, I do recognize how much better I feel after a good workout, and, that is enough for me to want to continue hitting the gym/biking/working out. 

When Danny and I first got together, we went out to eat ALL THE TIME.  It is no exaggeration to say that at least 5-6 nights a week we were getting dinner out.  Once we started living in sin the experiment in co-habitation, we scaled back some, but, still went out to restaurants about 60% of the time.

Things have changed a lot since those days.  My eating habits have changed and, as a result, I am a lot less likely to want to go to a restaurant and spend money on something that I am not 100% stoked to be eating.  There is no doubt that we are saving alot of cash dining at home – but, the one thing that was killing me about our grocery bill was the cost of fresh produce. 

Enter, my local produce market…

…it might not look like much, and, if you did not know that it was there, you would miss it – but, we have become regulars over the past year.  I like the fact that it is locally owned and operated – and the prices cannot be beat.

Depending on what is on my menu for the week – I usually spend between $10-15 and that supplies me with 90% of my produce for the week (I still get stuff like lettuce and broccoli from the grocery store). 

It should also be noted that my family does also support area farmers.  My mom buys boxes upon boxes of tomatoes from different gardens in the area.  And, I do make trips to the farmers market monthly to stock up on other items (like Angela’s Pickled Okra and Squash).

This is one habit that I am glad that we have picked up.  One of my goals for 2010 was to spend more money locally and live a healthier lifestyle. I am proud to say that this is one resolution I have stuck with.

It is Friday and I could not be more thrilled that the work week is finally over.  Not sure why, but, I have felt totally off my game this week.  The weather has been very dark and stormy most of the week – which, on the one hand, was good because we desperately needed some rain.  But, on the other, it kind of sucked because the evening bike rides I have gotten used to taking after work got impacted.

This was also the first week in probably 2.5+ years (minus vacation time) that I did not have a standing Tues./Thurs. appointment with my trainer.  Tom left town last weekend for St. Louis and we (Danny was also one of his clients) decided not to continue working out with another trainer.  Perhaps I was more dependant on those workout sessions than I thought.  They forced me to get up from my computer at work and go pound out some heavy lifting and cardio.  I need to be better about holding myself accountable – that built in stress relief is (apparently) very necessary in helping me stay positive.

I was supposed to go to Charlotte this weekend to hang out with some friends.  When it became obvious on Wednesday that was not going to happen, I became moodier than before.  Not sure why I continue to try and schedule out of town trips during my busy season – they never work out.  I am hoping to perhaps head to the CLT sometime in August instead (very sad that Kristi will be back in Vegas by then, but, Sam and Doug will be there).

On the upside, the weekend is here!  We have plans to spend some time on the bikes tomorrow morning (before it gets hot/rainy/muggy/etc) and then go to the produce market.  I am going to try and soak up as much relaxation as possible before next week.

(Totally gratuitous picture of Gracie because it makes me smile and she is also happy that the weekend is here!)

Neither Danny nor myself are what I would consider to be “morning people.”  Unfortunately, we both get up really early during the week in order to be at work by 7:30AM.  This work week was especially rough because neither one of us slept worth a damn on Monday or Tuesday due to the excessive heat.

Nonetheless, I made plans with our friends Julie and Nathan to meet up with them on Saturday morning for a bike excursion.  I set the alarm for about 7:30 and explained to Danny that I needed time to eat breakfast, digest a bit and hydrate.  He sort of grumbled at me and then when the alarm went off informed me that he “really could have used an extra hour of sleep.” 

We packed up our bikes and headed out across the bridge to Brunswick County to meet up with our friends.

It was a fun ride – the first/last 3 miles were “off road” (but nothing like the trials at UNCW) and then we did about 7 miles around neighborhoods over near their house.  The neighborhood we rode through was nothing short of awesome.  I don’t really want to move to Brunswick County – but, if I could afford a house in that particular neighborhood, I might would consider it!  They had a community fitness center, greenhouse, dog park and tons of other cool stuff.

I think that our final stats were a little over 13 miles (our farthest ride to date) in about an hour and a half or so.  Afterwards, we headed to lunch and I proceeded to devour my food.  Seriously, biking makes me work up an appetite.

After coming home and showering – I found the little monkey curled up on the bed…

I have a confession – one of my most favorite things in the world is curling up with the dog for a lazy afternoon of watching tv and chilling out.  So, Gracie and I laid in bed and got caught up on the DVR.  I think that she prefers watching tv with me instead of with Danny because she can’t get into the shows he watches on The History Channel.  She is more of a Top Chef, Glee and Friday Night Lights dog.

Today was more productive with running errands, cooking dinner and trying to get psyched up for the work week.  Speaking of which, I am going to find a spot on the sofa and relax.  I have got a busy week ahead of me!

We once again have air conditioning!  If I hadn’t thought it to have been totally inappropriate, I would have flung my arms around Ken the repairman and given him a hug when he got us up and running. 

Unfortunately, it is just a patch job.  We have a leak somewhere in our line, and were told that it is just a matter of time before our sweet, sweet A/C goes out again.  We are hoping that it gets us through the hottest part of the year and then perhaps we can reassess the situation.  I have a feeling we will wind up replacing the unit – which is going to cost a pretty penny.  I think that we have both sort of already accepted this though – if anything, our little experiment in no A/C during this SUPER hot weather opened our eyes to the importance of a reliable system.

While all three members of our household are thankful to have our house under 86 degrees – none is happier than this little monkey:

We were starting to get kind of worried about her well being.  Had the system not gotten fixed, we had already decided to book her a stay at Dogs at Play.  I mean, we were miserable in the heat – and we don’t have a fur coat to deal with. 

And now I am off to rest up – we have another fun biking adventure planned tomorrow morning.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather holds out for us.

Our air conditioning is broke again – and I am failing to see any sort of humor in the situation at all.  After a few days of unseasonably awesome weather last week, we are back to the hotter than hell days of summer.  And, according to the weatherman, it is supposed to get hotter later in the week.

Thankfully, we were able to find a place that is able to come out and look at our system tomorrow.  We are hoping praying that there will be a quick fix to this issue and we will be up and running by tomorrow afternoon.  If it is a bigger problem, we will have to file a home warranty claim to get it fixed – and who knows how long that will take?

Any positive thoughts that anyone out there in internet-ville wants to send out our way would be much appreciated. 

After years of relying on our friends for cookouts, we decided to host our first bash at the new place.  Since we have been in the house, we have had people over for pizza and both of our families have come over for meals.  But, this was the first full on “event” – we had 13 people over for burgers, hot dogs, appetizers and a watermelon shark (more on that in a little bit).  Thankfully, our air conditioner decided to wait until today to poop out on us!

Truth be told, I got a little bit carried away with the appetizers.  I have been looking at tastespotting a lot lately, and, had a whole list of things that I wanted to try.  I can’t justify fixing most of that stuff when it is just the two of us because Danny does not really eat anything with flavor.  So, my appetizer/side list included: marinated vegetable skewers, caprese skewers, homemade salsa, taco dip, marinated bean salad and orzo salad.

Sgt. Red Meat was in charge of manning the grill…

We have a TON of uncooked burgers and hotdogs leftover – thankfully Danny’s sister has company in town and was willing to take it off of our hands.  

I spent most of yesterday working on my “masterpiece.”  The other night I was surfing the internet, and ran across this awesome picture of a shark that someone had carved from a watermelon.  Why I decided that I just HAD to try to make this myself, I have no clue – but it went down something like this:

This is me trying to negotiate the best place to do the sculpting.  I started out at the kitchen sink, moved to the dining room table, went back to the sink and then back to the table.  (Please disregard that hideous apron – I have no idea where it came from and it was the only thing I could find.  I will be buying a new apron sometime soon).

Before continuing – it should be noted that I never took the time to formulate a plan for carving the shark.

It started to take shape when I took the first large hunk out for the mouth.  Next time I will buy a seedless watermelon!

Once I got started on the teeth, I lost all motivation to continue documenting the process with photos.  Danny was busy cleaning the house in anticipation of our guests and with my hands being a mess for obvious reasons, so, pictures just did not happen.

The finished product!  It did not turn out as cool as the original that I found online – but, I didn’t expect it to.  I was fairly impressed with the fact that it even resembled a shark (albeit not very closely, but, details).

All in all, it was a great weekend.  Every weekend should be 3 days and all work weeks 4.  We spent today vegging out until our A/C went out.  Hopefully we can get a person out in the next few days to fix this because I am dying in here right now.  Not to mention the furry best I have lying at my feet panting like crazy.  Poor Gracie!

(Note: Thanks to Carla for letting me steal these pictures.  Or maybe I didn’t really ask and just took them – but, details.  I totally meant to take my camera along to document this, but, forgot it thanks to a barking dog who was very annoyed with me for leaving her alone.)

Yesterday marked the first time in our (very short) biking careers that we headed off road.  Our friends Iron Mark (a Beach to Battleship finisher/triathalete extraordinaire/veteran mountain biker) and Carla (a medical professional) offered to take us out and show us the ropes on some of the trails behind UNCW.  I figured that between heading out with a seasoned endurance athlete AND a medical professional, we would be in good hands.

I am not going to lie – I was a little bit apprehensive about this experiment.  I am not the most coordinated person ever – and Danny, well, he is the king of weird injuries and ailments.  But, I went out and bought a shiny new mountain bike, and I figured I might as well use it for its intended purpose once before deciding to stick to roads.

So, having said all that – I pretty much had an absolute blast riding off road.  Once I sorted out that I was most comfortable leaving it in 3rd gear (I picked a little too much speed for my liking when we went down the first hill), I really enjoyed myself.  There were a few spots where the trail got very narrow – and I did dismount a time or two and walk in a few places where I felt the tree roots might make things a little ambitious for a novice – but, we spent a little over an hour riding and it flew by.

(Mark took this “action shot” and said that it was too humid and steamy to get a good picture.  Personally, I think that I was just moving so fast that I was like a blur to the camera)

I had my Garmin hooked to the bike and the total mileage it gave me afterwards was about 5.75 miles.  I am not sure how accurate that is though, because Mark’s bike computer was telling him over 6 miles.  The statistic that I was MOST impressed with though – was that my trusty Garmin told me that I burned 763 calories.  Not bad for an hours worth of biking.  To compare – last Saturday, Danny and I road 6.5 miles in the neighborhoods around our house and I only burned around 340 calories (again, according to the Garmin – I have no clue how accurate that actually is).

All in all, it was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening.  We headed out around 6 and when we were wrapping up the sun was starting to go down a little bit.  The trails were (obviously) shaded – but, it was still incredibly humid when we first started.  My shirt was pretty much soaked through when we finished – and I am SO glad that I brought a shirt to change into before going to pick up dinner.

We will not, however, be hitting the trails by ourselves anytime soon.  Mark has been riding over there since high school and knows them really well.  They were not all that well marked though, and until I get comfortable that I know my way around, we will stick with group riding.

Oh, and Danny survived too.  He was pretty stoked to have finished without taking a header off the bike.  It worked out much better for him than the great skiing experiment of Winter 2010.